Page 8 - TURKRptOct19

Erdogan seen with his arm on the coffin of a “martyr” while talking about main opposition party CHP.
Erdogan has nothing to offer when his credit-fuelled economy comes off the rails and he’s unable to souse the country with dollars.
Receiving the coffins. One thing’s for sure, if the Turkish army suffers fatalities from its latest push into Syria, Erdogan will receive the coffins of Turkish “martyrs” and he will attempt to ignite dynamite under the opposition alliance by accusing the main opposition Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) of partnering with Kurds through the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
He’ll then go on to pump up national unity propaganda as he bids to silence any kind of opposition voices still heard challenging his government (not to mention the growing number of dissenters in his own party that would like to see the back of Erdogan).
But has Erdogan bitten off more than he can chew by trusting the October 6 phone call with the nothing-if-not-unpredictable US president that finally gave him the green light to go after the Kurds in northeastern Syria that he has been after for such a long time?
Construction bonanza. Not to be overlooked in this moving target of a story is how Erdogan has cooked up a scheme to take towards 30 billion dollars from Europe and other donors to finance a massive house-building bonanza on seized Syrian territory, largely for Syrian refugees who could move back to their homeland from Turkey.
Such largesse will have the eyes of Turkey’s bankrupted contractors—the construction industry has taken a walloping amid Turkey’s economic downfall—popping. Shares in Turkish construction companies have been on the up since Erdogan’s tanks got permission from the White House to roll.
Erdogan’s political standing looks more precarious than ever. A “glorious” military adventure followed by post-war reconstruction profits to buoy the economy could go a long way to righting fortunes. Just how troubled Erdogan is by the extent of his unpopularity was demonstrated again at the weekend at an AKP party camp where he remarked that disloyal officials could be found throughout the party’s ranks.
Last week, an AKP official spun the idea of lowering the threshold for a candidate to be elected president in the first round of voting from the current 50%-plus-one-vote to 40%-plus-one-vote. Secretly prompting a selected AKP official to test the waters for possible plans is a trademark device used by Erdogan.
When it became clear that no-one could find any logic in the 40%-plus-one
8 TURKEY Country Report October 2019 www.intellinews.com