Turkey’s central bank demoted at least nine high-ranking officials including chief economist Hakan Kara, two officials said. The bank’s heads of research, banking, risk management and institutional transformation are among those who are getting new roles. This comes after Recep Tayyip Erdogan fired the governor last month for not cutting rates fast enough. Source: Reuters, Bloomberg
Pivot Countries
Turkey’s counter-terrorism operations will move forward to a “different phase” in northern Syria soon, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Aug. 6. “We wiII move the process which we started with the Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations [in northern Syria] forward to a different phase very soon,” Erdoğan said at the 11th Ambassadors’ Conference. Source Hurriyet daily news
The deal between Ankara and Moscow has been signed and sealed and the first shipments of the S-400 air defence system have just landed on Turkish soil, at a military airbase located at the vicinity of the country’s capital. The second-largest NATO army is acquiring weapons and materiel from a state that by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is viewed as inimical.
Turkey occupies an area which is bridging Europe with Asia and neighbouring some of the war-ridden countries like Iraq and Syria in the volatile region known as the Middle East. It is also strategically important for NATO because it controls the Straits between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and because it outflanks Russia from the south. A NATO member since 1952 Turkey – although a Third World country – wanted to remain a loyal member of the Alliance with ever closer ties to the Western world. Not only did Ankara join its troops to the NATO but also lent its territory to the pact. The reader will have remembered that it was the American missiles deployed to Turkish territory which caused anxiety at the Kremlin and induced Nikita Khrushchev to retaliate by deploying Soviet missiles to Cuba, which led to the international conflict threatening to culminate in a third world war. The strained relations between the two superpowers were only eased when both the Soviets withdrew their missiles from the largest island in the Caribic and the Americans removed theirs from Turkey.
Turkey’s membership in the Alliance has never meant that Ankara was a patsy in Washington’s hands. It skilfully guarded its sovereignty and pursued its own interests. Thus in 1974 Turkish armed forces landed in Northern Cyprus, establishing there of a separate Turkish state and a permanent – as yet – division of the island predominantly inhabited by Greeks. Thus Ankara dared to thwart the interest of another NATO member – Greece – and Athens could do nothing about it. Turkey was strategically too important and that is why it could afford to act independently of NATO’s most important allies.
Cyprus has strongly protested at the UN over Turkey’s violations of the island’s national airspace, the infringements of international air traffic regulations and the illegal use of closed ports and airports. Source: Ekathimerini
“Iran will withstand this type of fight and Iran is not alone,” Zamir Kabulov, the Foreign Ministry’s special envoy for Asian countries including Iran, said at a Russian-Iranian policy forum in Moscow. Source: The Moscow Times
Iran has shot down a U.S. drone which the elite Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday was flying over southern Iran, raising fears that a major military confrontation could erupt between Tehran and Washington. Source: Reuters
An extensive military operation was launched against the camps of the PKK terrorist organization in northern Iraq to clear militants from the region, whose presence in the area has been posing a national security threat to Ankara for decades with frequent attacks in southeastern Turkey. Source: Daily Sabbah
A bus that arrived in the French city of Lyon from Milan in Italy was sealed off for several hours Monday after the driver showed symptoms of possible coronavirus infection, security sources said. Source France
The U.S. government failed to effectively account for nearly $715.8 million in weapons and equipment allocated to Syrian partners as part of the multinational counter-ISIS fight, according to a new report from the Defense Department inspector general. Source Task & Purpose
US President Donald Trump issued an expanded version of his travel ban on Friday, an official said. The move was slammed by immigrant advocates and critics who say the policy discriminates against Muslims and others. Source AL Jazeera
- Jet fuel prices have dropped sharply due to the coronavirus.
- Airlines have canceled more than 200,000 flights, mostly within China as the government steps up measures to curb the spread of the virus.
- The coronavirus has sicked more than 76,000 people and killed more than 2,200. Source CNBC
Officials in northern Italy ordered schools, public buildings, restaurants and coffee shops to close. The emergency measures come as a cluster of new infections emerged, including some who had not been to China. Source Deutsche Welle
On February 18, the Hague Court of Appeal reinstated an order of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which obliged Russia to pay $50 bln to the companies associated with former Yukos shareholders Source Tass
Every year fewer Poles emigrate to Sweden while the number of Polish citizens leaving that country is ever greater, according to the latest data released by Statistics Sweden (SCB), the national statistical office. Source The First News
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday announced measures to end a programme that allowed foreign countries to send imams and teachers to France in a bid to crack down on what he called the risk of “separatism”. Source France24
The Albanian Minister-in-office for Europe and Foreign Affairs Gent Çakaj and the Foreign Minister of Kosovo Glauk Konjufca met today to discuss the establishment of common economic space for free movement of people, goods & capital between Albania and Kosovo and the possibility of founding shared embassies of Kosovo and Albania around the world. Source Europeanwesternbalkans
The Russian Defense Ministry says its Air Force launched strikes to repel a militant offensive against the Syrian Army in Idlib, which had sought to breach the government forces’ defensive lines with Turkey’s backing. The militants launched a “massive offensive” southeast of the city of Idlib, using many armored vehicles, the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria said on Thursday, adding that it was Turkish artillery that helped them breach the Syrian Army’s defenses in some areas. Source RT
In one day, sea rescue vessel Ocean Viking received distress calls to come to the aid of two boats carrying displaced people across the Mediterranean. DW reporter Miodrag Soric witnessed the rescue operations firsthand. Source Deutsche Welle
China’s warehouses have racked up record levels of steel as the coronavirus outbreak has brought construction and manufacturing, which account for more than half of global demand for the material, to a standstill.
Steel makers and traders held a total of 34.3m tons of finished steel products – the highest level ever recorded – as of February 20, according to Shanghai-based industry data provider Mysteel. Source Capital
Long-term bond rates are falling sharply as worries about a recession increase. The 30-year US Treasury yield is at an all-time low and the 10-year is not far from its 2016 record low of 1.32%. The price of US oil fell 5%. And the US dollar is near a 52-week high. Source CNN
Car sales in China fell 92% in the first half of February as the coronavirus shutdown took its toll, according to an industry trade body. Car dealerships have remained closed while buyers have stayed away to prevent the spread of the deadly virus. Source BBC
Germany’s 30-year bond yield turned negative for the first time since October on Monday, meaning the entire yield curve in the euro zone’s biggest economy was below zero again as coronavirus fears gripped world markets. The yield on the 30-year German bond fell 6 basis point to -0.022%, its lowest level since October. Source Reuters
- The drop off in tourist numbers is an “important impact” on France’s economy, Bruno Le Maire, the country’s finance minister, said.
- France is one of the most visited countries in the world, and tourism accounts for nearly 8% of its GDP.
- Le Maire said France welcomes around 2.7 million Chinese tourists to the country each year, but it “won’t be the same” in 2020. Source CNBC
European leaders failed to reach an agreement on the bloc’s Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021-2027, after more than 24 hours of negotiations and dozens of bilateral meetings held during EU’s emergency summit. Source New Europe
U.S. satellite broadband provider Hughes Network Systems may have to shut its Indian operations due to unpaid levies owed to the government, which could put thousands of banking services at risk, a company letter seen by Reuters showed.
India’s Supreme Court late last year ordered a number of telecom companies, including Hughes and larger firms like Vodafone (L:VOD), to pay billions of dollars owed to the government. Source Reuters
Kuwait Airways said it has decided to suspend all flights to Iran on Thursday until another notice amid fears from a coronavirus outbreak, according to statements published on the company’s Twitter account. Source Al Alarabiya
Japan is finalizing a plan that will tighten scrutiny of foreign investment in 12 key sectors, four government sources with knowledge of the matter have said. The sectors would include industries like defense, nuclear power, aerospace, utilities, gas, cyber security and telecommunications, two of the sources said. Source Japan Times
Airbus announced on Wednesday it planned to cut 2,362 jobs in its Defence and Space division, which is headquartered near Munich, over the next two years. The European multinational aerospace company will cut 829 jobs in Germany, 630 in Spain, 404 in France and 357 in Britain. A further 142 jobs will be cut in other countries. Source Deutsche Welle
The Swedish Central Bank, the Riksbank, is launching a pilot scheme for a new digital currency that will aim to show how it could be used by the public as a complement to cash.
The announcement comes years after the Riksbank first said it was looking into creating its own digital currency, an e-krona, based on block-chain technology. Source The Local
