Archive for the ‘Erdogan’ Category

Ghalibaf, Erdogan stress expansion of bilateral relations – Mehr News Agency – English Version

"I hope that the Vienna talks on the implementation of the nuclear agreement will be concluded fairly," the president of Turkey said in the meeting withIranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in Istanbul on Friday.

Recep Tayyip Erdoan further urged the international organizations to help Iran in dealing with the influxes of Afghan refugees.

Ghalibaf, for his part, emphasized in the meeting that the comprehensive document of cooperation between the two countries is being finalized, which is a symbol of a serious willingness of both nationa to develop relations.

The Iranian parliament speaker further said that the big powers must learn that they must not try to impose their will on other countries,

He further said anagreement in the Vienna talks will be reached if the major western powers show respect for other countries'interests.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad BagherGhalibaf arrived in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Wednesdayevening to participate in the meeting of the 16th Parliamentary Union of OIC members.

KI

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Ghalibaf, Erdogan stress expansion of bilateral relations - Mehr News Agency - English Version

Erdogan says Turkeys interest rates will continue to fall – Aljazeera.com

Cheaper cash will boost manufacturing, create jobs and slow inflation, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a TV news interview. The lira extended losses after his remarks, falling as much as 8.1 percent against the US dollar.

Turkeys interest rates will continue to fall, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, making a case for an economy freed from dependence on short-term foreign cash and transformed into one that thrives on local production and exports.

Cheaper money will boost manufacturing, create jobs and slow consumer inflation currently running at four times the official target of 5%, and the currency will eventually strengthen, Erdogan said in an interview with state broadcaster TRT on Tuesday.

Turkey wont try to attract capital flows that leaves its economy at the mercy of hot money, or investments that can be quickly withdrawn, Erdogan said. His pledges put the Turkish central bank in an awkward position after monetary policy makerssaidthey would assess ending interest rate cuts as early as December. Even so, the Turkish lira lost almost 28% of its value since the bank started its current easing cycle in September and lowered the benchmark rate down by 4 percentage points to 15%.

Our country has now come to the point of breaking this vicious cycle, and there is no turning back from here, Erdogan said.

The lira extended losses after Erdogans remarks, falling as much as 8.1% against the U.S. dollar. It was trading 6.4% lower at 13.7058 per U.S. dollar as of 11:07 p.m. in Istanbul.

Price Shocks

Erdogan unveiled his most recent policy stance a little over a week ago, pushing for lower interest rates to turbo-boost growth and revive his flagging popularity ahead of the 2023 vote.

Pushing for lower borrowing costs is hardly new for the Turkish president, whose proposition that cheaper money slows inflation defies mainstream economics. Driving credit-fueled growth before elections has worked for him in the past.

The accumulating impact of that policy, rising income inequalities and the damage wrought by Covid means the potential social costs are much bigger this time. Price shocks resulting from the liras freefall are making life more expensive in the nation of 84 million.

Continuing old policies based on false premises would only exacerbate those problems, Erdogan said.

The high interest rate policy imposed on us is not a new phenomenon, he said. It is a model that destroys domestic production and makes structural inflation permanent by increasing production costs. We are ending this spiral.

The government is working on two support programs aimed at creating 50,000 new jobs to mitigate the short-term volatilities, the Turkish leader said.

Private companies will get 50 billion liras ($3.7 billion) in new loans under one of the programs supported by the Credit Guarantee fund. Interest rates on the loans will be as much as 7 percentage points lower than the market levels, contributing to an estimated growth of 10% in Turkeys gross-domestic product this year, Erdogan said.

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Erdogan says Turkeys interest rates will continue to fall - Aljazeera.com

Erdogan Claims Sochi Meeting ‘Resolved’ Rail and Road Construction Along Arax River Asbarez.com – Asbarez Armenian News

Erdogan, Aliyev Also Hail Zangezur Corridor

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on Monday claimed that his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev has informed him that the issue of the construction of railway and roads along the Arax River was resolved during a meeting between the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan in Sochi on Friday.

The issue of building railways and roads along the Arax River has been resolved, Erdogan claimed that Aliyev informed him on Sunday during the Economic Cooperation Organization in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

The construction of a highway passing through Armenia through Nakhichevan to Turkeys Igdir Province is on the agenda, added Erdogan, emphasizing that with these projects the parties will take a step toward the development of air and cargo transportation in the region.

The ECO is comprised of all five Central Asian countries (Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan), as well as Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey.

While the unblocking of communications and transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan was discussed during the Sochi talks organized by President Vladimir Putin of Russia, the official announcement by the three leaders did not include specifics about the discussion. Putin hailed the meeting as extremely constructive on Friday.

Putin said the details of the so-called unblocking process will be announced by the deputy prime ministers of the three countries, who form a special task force to oversee the matter.

In Ashgabat Erdogan and Aliyev also discussed the so-called Zangezur Corridor that they hope will link Azerbaijan proper with Nakhichevan, and ultimately Turkey, through Armenia.

Today I can say that the Zangezur Corridor is becoming a reality. This new transport infrastructure will become an important part of the East-West and North-South corridors. I am sure that OIC member-states will use that corridor, the APA news agency quoted Aliyev as saying.

According to the same source, Erdogan said that the significance of the Zangezur Corridor is well-known and stressed that special attention should be paid to the development of transport corridors.

Yerevan has rejected any corridor plan, while Moscow has stressed that the process of unblocking transport link must respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the states through which they pass.

On Monday, Erdogan also discussed the so-called 3+3 plan, which is a plan put forth by Ankara and Baku and envisions the formation of a transportation and economic bloc involving Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Iran.

The activation of this dimension, with the participation of Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Iran, and if they agree, Georgia, will prove that there is regional peace, said Erdogan. We see that there are positive steps in that direction.

Georgia has officially stated that it is against this scheme because of Russias participation.

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Erdogan Claims Sochi Meeting 'Resolved' Rail and Road Construction Along Arax River Asbarez.com - Asbarez Armenian News

Debbie Bookchin: The party that actually supports terror is Erdogan’s AKP – ANHA – ANHA

Journalist and author Debbie Bookchin, daughter of Murray Bookchin said that efforts exerted by the Kurdish people to hold negotiations with Turkey are merely to find a peaceful solution indicating that it is Erdogan that impedes such efforts laying stress that leader Abdullah Ocalan must be freed and PKK be delisted from black list.

Abdullah Ocalan was arrested and sentenced to death, and later to life in prison, without a fair trial. For more than 22 years, he has been held in solitary confinement, a condition that the United Nations considers to be a form of torture.

On this among others Debbie was interviewed by ANHA and said:

Mr. Ocalan is the leader of a legitimate movement for minority rights and national liberation, just as Nelson Mandela was. Several judicial bodies including the Permanent Peoples Tribunal, a direct descendent of the Russell Tribunal established by philosophers Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre to investigate American war crimes in Vietnam, have determined that the PKK is engaged in a legitimate struggle for human rights.

The Tribunal found that the Turkish state is denying the right to self-determination of the Kurdish peoples identity and presence, and the repression of its participation in the political, economic and cultural life of the country. Another body, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) studying the period of July 2015 to December 2016, documented [pdf, p2] evidence of: excessive use of force; killings; enforced disappearances; torture; destruction of housing and cultural heritage; incitement to hatred; prevention of access to emergency medical care, food, water and livelihoods; violence against women; and severe curtailment of the right to freedom of opinion and expression as well as political participation.

The Permanent Peoples Tribunal stated unequivocally that the Kurdish struggle for human rights is not a terrorist issue as Turkish President Erdogan claims, but rather a non-international armed conflict ruled by international humanitarian law. As such, it should not be subject to anti-terrorism legislation. A Belgian high court has agreed.

The party that actually supports terror is Erdogan's AKP, as shown by its continued support of ISIS and other jihadi gangs. Amnesty International and others have documented how these jihadi militias have systematically attacked the Kurdish people in Rojava, kidnapping and raping women, killing civilians, looting property, and engaging in ethnic cleansing that has displaced more than 300,000 people.

The Kurdish people have repeatedly tried to negotiate a peaceful solution with Turkey. Erdogan alone is responsible for sabotaging these efforts. The growing aggression by Turkey against the Kurdish people should be denounced by the entire international community. Erdogans use of chemical weapons by Turkey is a war crime that is a stain on every NATO nation that remains silent. It is time for Turkey to withdraw from Syria and Iraq. It is time for the peace process to resume. To do this, Abdullah Ocalan must be released from prison and the PKK must be delisted. World leaders, and all of us, must speak out in favor of basic human rights and demand the release of Abdullah Ocalan and the resumption of peace negotiations between Turkey and the PKK.

L..A

ANHA

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Debbie Bookchin: The party that actually supports terror is Erdogan's AKP - ANHA - ANHA

Erdogan orders removal of 10 ambassadors, including US envoy

ISTANBUL (AP) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that he had ordered 10 foreign ambassadors who called for the release of a jailed philanthropist to be declared persona non grata.

The envoys, including the U.S., French and German representatives in Ankara, issued a statement earlier this week calling for a resolution to the case of Osman Kavala, a businessman and philanthropist held in prison since 2017 despite not having been convicted of a crime.

Describing the statement as an impudence, Erdogan said he had ordered the ambassadors be declared undesirable.

I gave the instruction to our foreign minister and said You will immediately handle the persona non grata declaration of these 10 ambassadors, Erdogan said during a rally in the western city of Eskisehir.

He added: They will recognize, understand and know Turkey. The day they dont know or understand Turkey, they will leave.

The diplomats, who also include the ambassadors of the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and New Zealand, were summoned to the foreign ministry on Tuesday.

A declaration of persona non grata against a diplomat usually means that individual is banned from remaining in their host country.

Kavala, 64, was acquitted last year of charges linked to nationwide anti-government protests in 2013, but the ruling was overturned and joined to charges relating to a 2016 coup attempt.

International observers and human rights groups have repeatedly called for the release of Kavala and Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas, who has been jailed since 2016. They say their imprisonment is based on political considerations. Ankara denies the claims and insists on the independence of Turkish courts.

The European Court of Human Rights called for Kavalas release in 2019, saying his incarceration acted to silence him and wasnt supported by evidence of an offense. The Council of Europe says it will start infringement proceedings again Turkey at the end of November if Kavala is not released.

The current U.S. ambassador, David Satterfield, was appointed in 2019. The nomination of his replacement, Jeff Flake, was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.

After Erdogans order was reported, the State Department said in a statement, We are aware of these reports and are seeking clarity from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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Erdogan orders removal of 10 ambassadors, including US envoy