I was at the National Day reception at the Chinese Embassy in Ankara when Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Öncü Keçeli made a statement “it is an internal U.S. matter” regarding the federal corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams in which Türkiye is at the center. Unlike the Saudi Arabian reception, the entire Turkish military
Turkish Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) Deputy Chairman Mustafa Aydın is under scrutiny for accepting substantial wedding gifts from bank executives whom he is responsible for regulating. Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, upon returning from a trip to the United States, immediately ordered an investigation into the matter, stating that “necessary actions will
Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz unveiled the Medium Term Program (MTP), outlining Ankara’s economic roadmap for the next three years. The MTP marks a crucial juncture for both the country’s economic recovery efforts and the political future of both President Tayyip Erdoğan and Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. While numerous questions arise, the
I have no intention of targeting Mehmet Şimşek, the Minister of Treasury and Finance. Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) members are already doing that enough. Despite the defeat in the March 31 elections, they act as if President Tayyip Erdoğan wasn’t the sole decision-maker and they had done everything right, still claiming, “If we
The Central Bank of Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) which sold foreign currency from its reserves to prevent the US dollar from appreciating further against the Turkish lira (TL) before the March 31 elections, is now buying US dollars from the market to prevent the TL from appreciating too much against the dollar. According to Central
In a bid to curb surging inflation and restore fiscal discipline, Türkish Finance Ministry unveiled an extensive savings plan aimed at reining in public spending. Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz and Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek announced a new “Public Savings Plan” on May 13 at a joint briefing. The savings plan comes as Türkiye
President Tayyip Erdoğan is using the constitutional amendment as a smokescreen to obscure and distract attention from the major problems ahead. On the night of April 28, days before Erdoğan’s meeting with CHP leader Özgür Özel, Chief Legal Advisor Mehmet Uçum published the text “What could be the main principles of the new constitution”, which
The local elections are over. Not as the Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan intended, but as opposition CHP leader Özgür Özel wanted. Yet Erdoğan still has an economic crisis ahead of him. The way out of this crisis is the Medium Term Program (MTP) he entrusted to the Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek. The
The World Bank has been on the agenda in Türkiye for two reasons nowadays. First, because it decided to provide Türkiye with US$ 18 billion in project financing for the period 2024-2028, and second, because of the news that half of this financing will be made available on the condition that Syrian refugees and LGBTQ+
This article is one of the most challenging ones that I have written for a newspaper or any other media outlet. I will explain the reason at the end, but first, let me begin with the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) latest decision. The MPC, raised the one-week
- 1
- 2