Moody’s: Political pressure on institutions will affect credit ratingAnkara, 14 February 2015 (MIA) - International credit ratings agency Moody's warned in that the continued political pressure being exerted on Turkey's central bank is likely to impact its credit rating.
Moody's also acknowledged in its statement that the country's economy is tied to its foreign borrowing and that political pressure on pivotal institutions impacts investor sentiment, Turkey's paper 'Today's Zaman' reports.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ramped up his criticism of the central bank this month, expressing displeasure at its monetary policy after finding its latest interest rate cut to be insufficient. Erdogan, who harbors a strong distaste for high interest rates, has slammed the central bank on numerous occasions over the past year since it hiked overnight lending and borrowing rates significantly in order to save a floundering lira. He believes that high inflation is the result of high interest rates and that a considerable cut would alleviate inflation and spur economic growth.
The troubled lira plunged to an all-time low following Erdoğan's recent comments, which directly challenged the independence of the bank. While the lira had plunged to nearly 2.4 to the dollar prior to the central bank's intervention in early 2014, it fell to a record low of 2.50 earlier this month.
Meanwhile, international ratings agency Fitch was optimistic about improvements Turkey has made to its relatively large current account deficit (CAD) but emphasized the importance of durability and resilience in a recent statement.
"The fall in the Turkish CAD last year demonstrates the economy's capacity for rebalancing. The durability of this rebalancing and the extent to which it reduces Turkey's vulnerability to sudden shifts in investor sentiment is an important part of our sovereign ratings assessment," said Fitch in its statement.
Turkey's CAD narrowed last year amid falling global oil prices and a shrinking trade deficit.
Fitch reiterated that the size of Turkey's CAD is still a "standout among emerging markets" in spite of the decline. "A narrower CAD and a shift to longer-term instruments in net capital inflows would increase the sustainability of Turkey's external finances if they were material and lasting. Previous current account adjustments have proved temporary, and higher foreign direct investment would improve the mix of current account financing," said the credit ratings agency. lk/15:14
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Everything ready for inauguration of Croatia's first female president
Zagreb, 15 February 2015 (MIA) - The Croatian capital, bathed in the winter sunshine on Sunday morning, is ready for the start of the inauguration of Croatia's fourth president, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, who is the first female head of state since the country gained independence.
Grabar-Kitarovic, who won the presidential runoff on 11 January, will be sworn in at the ceremony that starts at noon in on St. Mark's Square, upper town Zagreb.
The inauguration ceremony, to last a little under an hour, will be kicked off by a shot fired from the Gric Cannon at noon and the bells of St. Mark's Church, outside of which the ceremony will take place.
After the Gric Cannon shot, Grabar-Kitarovic will walk onto a stage on St. Mark's Square, accompanied by her husband Jakov and the sound of fanfares, where Constitutional Court judges will be waiting.
She will arrive to the square by funicular and walk down Cirilometodska Street through two rows of citizens and historical military units from all over Croatia.
Following the national anthem, a minute's silence will be observed for those killed in the 1991-95 Homeland War.
After Grabar-Kitarovic is sworn in, signs the presidential oath and receives the presidential sash from Constitutional Court President Judge Jasna Omejec, the Guard of Honour will walk towards the stage and one of the members will walk up carrying the national flag, to which the president will pay her respects, accompanied by ten cannon salutes and a recital of Ivan Gundulic's "Hymn to Freedom.
The president will then deliver a 20-25 minute speech, after which the Croatian Army's wind orchestra will perform Jakov Gotovac's "Ode to the Land".
Eighty-eight foreign delegation will attend the inauguration. lk/10:47
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Mass protest in Turkey over young woman murdered after attempted rape
Ankara, 15 February 2015 (MIA) - Women’s rights activists in Turkey took to the streets Saturday in protest at the murder of a young woman after she resisted an alleged attempt to rape her, local media reported.
Hundreds of women gathered in Istanbul’s Taksim square chanting slogans such as “You will never walk alone!”.
The protesters also demanded that family and social policies minister Aysenur Islam, a woman, step down, AFP reports.
Police on Friday discovered the burned body of 20-year-old Ozgecan Aslan in a riverbed in southern Turkey.
She had been missing since Wednesday when she was reported to have boarded a minibus to go home, the Hurriyet newspaper reported.
Three suspects including the driver of the minibus were detained and are said to have admitted to having stabbed Aslan.
A motive for the alleged murder was not immediately clear, but the private Dogan news agency reported that the driver attempted to rape Aslan after she was left alone in the minibus.
She resisted by spraying pepper gas at the driver who stabbed her to death, according to Dogan. The driver later sought help from two other people — his father and friend — to hide the body.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition CHP party, wrote on Twitter: “There is no harassment, rape, violence in the nature of women! We will all together say ‘no’ to this mentality!”
The crime appears set to become a rallying cause for activists seeking to end violence against women in a country where hundreds of women are killed by their husbands every year.
In November, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stirred controversy when he declared that women were not equal to men.
Erdogan has also drawn the ire of feminist groups for declaring that every woman in Turkey should have three children and with proposals to limit abortion rights and the morning-after pill. lk/12:28
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Turkish court remands 17 policemen to face wiretapping trial
Istanbul, 15 February 2015 (MIA) - A Turkish court remanded 17 policemen in custody to face trial as part of an investigation into the illegal wiretapping of politicians, civil servants and businessmen, Reuters cites Turkish media reports on Sunday.
Raids were carried out a week ago in 12 cities to enforce a court order in President Tayyip Erdogan's campaign against supporters of his ally turned arch-opponent, U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Twenty-one police officers were detained in the operation, of whom 17 were placed under formal arrest in preparation for trial, while the other four were freed temporarily but banned from leaving the country.
All 21 policemen are suspected of trying to overthrow the government or obstruct its duties by wiretapping, recording of private data, breaching the right to privacy and forming a terrorist organisation, the private Dogan news agency said.
"This ruling was not made in this courthouse, it was made in dark tunnels, and these judges and prosecutors are just playing their role, as if in a theatre," said Omer Turanli, a lawyer for the policemen.
Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.
Scores of police officers have been detained as part of the investigation since the mid-2014.
Erdogan accuses Gulen of setting up a "parallel state" within the Turkish administration and of trying to topple him, blaming Gulen's supporters within the police and judiciary for a corruption inquiry that rocked the government late in 2013.
In the course of the scandal, wiretap recordings of senior officials leaked onto the Internet. Thousands of police officers, judges and prosecutors have since been removed from their posts.
In December, a Turkish court issued an arrest warrant for Gulen on suspicion of heading a criminal organisation and earlier this month the government revoked his passport.
Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, denies plotting against the government. lk/13:19
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New Croatia president urges national consensus to revive economy
Zagreb, 15 February 2015 (MIA) - Croatia's new president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, appealed for a "wide national consensus" to revive the European Union member's battered economy as she formally took office on Sunday, Reuters reports.
Grabar-Kitarovic, a 46-year old former diplomat, was sworn in Zagreb's mediaeval St. Mark square, home to government and parliament, packed with foreign visitors and thousands of flag-waving, cheering citizens.
"Our economy has been hit by crisis for the last six years. Thousands of young people are leaving, many companies are going bankrupt. This requires urgent action from the government, employers, unions," she told the gathering.
Grabar-Kitarovic won the presidential election in January as a candidate for the conservative opposition HDZ party, pledging to prod the Social Democrat-led government into doing more for the economy, which has been in recession since 2009.
"We need a wide national consensus about the key issues, there is no time for divisions. We must overcome party interests and implement changes that cannot be postponed. We must stop living off the money we're borrowing from future generations."
She did not get specific but urged the government to remove red tape and make taxes less onerous for investors.
After six years of recession, unemployment is running at 19 percent in the former Yugoslav republic of 4.4 million people, which joined the EU in July 2013.
High taxes and poor administration hamper business and the economy is not expected to grow in 2015 as the government struggles to rein in spending and cut the budget deficit.
Public debt is expected to surpass 80 percent of gross domestic product this year.
Grabar-Kitarovic, Croatia's first woman president, previously served as foreign minister, Zagreb's ambassador to Washington and as a NATO official.
In Croatia, the president is largely ceremonial, with a say in foreign policy and defence but no power to veto laws.
The president also has the right to seek and attend special cabinet meetings, but that right has rarely been exercised. Grabar-Kitarovic said during the campaign she would seek such a cabinet meeting to focus on economic issues.
Sunday's inauguration ceremony of Grabar-Kitarovic was attended by thousands of cheering supporters at a square in the old part of the capital, Zagreb.
Dozens of regional leaders and foreign officials attended the event.
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