Page 27 - TURKRptOct19

Trial starts of Bloomberg reporters accused of spreading false information at height of Turkey’s currency crisis. Two Bloomberg reporters and 17 other defendants on September 20 sought their acquittal in Turkey on charges that they spread false information about the economy at the height of last year's Turkish lira crisis.
A criminal complaint was filed in August 2018 by the BDDK banking watchdog after the news agency published an article on the impact of a sharp decline in the lira and how authorities and banks were responding.
The judge adjourned the case to January 17, 2020.
Turkey is the world’s biggest jailer of journalists according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu on September 3 threatened “to devastate” Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu in response to his support for three Kurdish mayors who were replaced by government appointees over alleged terror links.
“Ignorant. Know your place and your limits,” Soylu said of Imamoglu. “This country has been handling this terrorist organisation [Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK] for 40 years... If you meddle in things that are not your job, we will devastate you.”
Erdogan has previously said that his government would not stop short of replacing mayors in other parts of the country if they were found to be linked to militants. Imamoglu has dismissed those remarks as meaningless and saddening.
Turkish police detained 22 suspects accused of running transnational money-transfer networks for Islamic State following simultaneous raids on 37 locations in eight provinces across Turkey, Al-Monitor has reported.
After the Syrian turmoil broke out in 2011, long-standing smuggling routes became supply channels for armed rebels, including Islamic State, the cross- border dealings of which are said to be far from over.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 shook Turkey's largest city Istanbul on September 27, according to quake monitors.
There were reports of eight people suffering slight injuries.
In 1999 a quake measuring 7.6 struck the city of Izmit, 90 km southeast of Istanbul. More than 17,000 people lost their lives.
Erdogan threatens to “open the gates” to Europe for millions of Syrian refugees hosted by Turkey. Erdogan on September 5 warned he would “open the gates” to allow Syrian refugees to leave Turkey for western countries unless a controversial “safe zone” inside Syria is formed soon.
Turkey is hosting some 3.6mn Syrian refugees.
Under a 2016 agreement, the EU promised Ankara €6bn in exchange for stronger controls on refugees leaving Turkish territory for Europe. Erdogan claims only €3bn has so far arrived.
Athens summoned Turkey’s ambassador after more than a dozen migrant boats landed on Greece’s Lesbos island within minutes of each other on August 29. It was the first such mass arrival from Turkey in three years, officials said. Sixteen boats carrying about 650 people reached Lesbos, with 13 arriving in under an hour, police and the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said. Of the 56,000 refugees and migrants that have arrived in
27 TURKEY Country Report October 2019 www.intellinews.com