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lowing the recent tightening of external financing conditions,” Capital observed.
Also, Turkey’s sovereign vulnerabilities are moving closer to the red zone in Capital Economics’ Monitor.
The Turkish lira (TRY) lost around a third of its value against the USD during the course of last year with the USD/TRY rate finishing 2018 at 5.29 compared to the 3.79 recorded at end-2017. During the worst of the currency collapse in August it nosedived into the 7.20s – hit- ting an all-time low, as the row with the Trump administration over detained US Pastor Andrew Brunson deteriorated. Since last November, the Turkish central bank and public lenders have managed to put something of a brake on the lira – although the government in amateurish fashion has been setting crude horizontal barriers at the cost of burning through reserves. Its approach has been sup- ported via external borrowing at terrible expense and has prompted nervous locals into buying FX, substantially add- ing to the strain on the lira.
Turkey’s overall external debt repayment obligations for the next 12-month period stood at $177.1bn at end-February, mark- ing a distinctly limited $8.8bn retreat from the $185.9bn figure at end-Febru- ary 2018, despite the economic collapse brought about by the currency crisis, central bank data showed on April 17.
The figure was previously seen at $173.9bn at end-October last year as a result of the ‘curing’ effect of the cur- rency crunch, but since then it has once more trended upwards with the govern- ment having gone on a renewed external borrowing spree that was followed by private corporates, private banks and public lenders also issuing new debt from the beginning of 2019.
Pinkish-as-much-as-fragile
The debt was issued on pinkish as- much-as-fragile sentiment for emerging markets among international investors, which lasted until the week leading
up to the March 31 local elections that became an unofficial referendum on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
HSBC Turkey CEO acquitted of insulting Erdogan by retweeting ‘Hitler’ video
bne IntelliNews
Selim Kervanci, chief executive of HSBC Turkey, was charged after a private citizen informed the authorities that the bank boss retweeted a video on social media at the time of the nationwide ‘Gezi’ anti-government protests in 2013. The verdict comes at a time when strongman Erdogan’s ‘invincibility’ has been called into question by the Ankara and Istanbul defeats his AKP party suffered in the end of March local elections, despite fierce campaigning by the president.
The CEO was reported by Reuters as telling the court: “I work in an international bank. An unjust decision would harm my career and would harm my country’s prestige.”
He further told the court that he did not intend to insult anyone by retweeting the video and had not viewed the video before sharing it.
“When I did this there was no way I could have intended any insult,”
he was also cited as stating to the court before the verdict was announced.
The video in question was an excerpt of the 2004 German feature film “Down- fall”. It depicts Adolf Hitler’s last days and the collapse of Nazi Germany.
Sixteen face trial
Sixteen civil society figures, writers and actors are facing trial over their alleged roles in the Gezi protests, accused of seeking to overthrow Erdogan’s government in 2013.
In Turkey, insulting the president is a crime punishable by up to four years in prison. Thousands of such cases have been opened since Erdogan became president in 2014.
Following the attempted coup d'etat against Erdogan and his government
in mid-2016, Turkey introduced a state of emergency, which lasted until July 2018. During the emergency regime a harsh crackdown against anyone with any alleged association with the Gulenist network – said by the government to have orchestrated the coup attempt – led to the detention and/or firing from state jobs of tens of thousands of people. Such arrests are still taking place, though at a slower pace.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on April 10 released a report exploring how Turkey has arbitrarily jailed hundreds of lawyers and put them on trial in the aftermath of the botched coup attempt.
“The move is part of the Turkish authorities’ major assault on the right to a fair trial and on the role of lawyers in the administration of justice,” HRW said in a press release announcing the publication of the 56-page report, “Lawyers on Trial: Abusive Prosecutions and Erosion of Fair Trial Rights in Turkey”.
Turkey is seen as “Not Free” by the Freedom House watchdog. For three straight years, it has been listed by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) as the world’s biggest jailer of journalists.
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