News Scan, Dec 29th 2013 – Flautre accuses Erdoğan of being ‘irresponsible’ in corruption scandal

Flautre accuses Erdoğan of being ‘irresponsible’ in corruption scandal

Hélène Flautre, the co-chairwoman of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, released a statement on Saturday in which she criticized Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as “irresponsible” for making accusations against those investigating the current corruption probe.

“I observe the recent developments in Turkey with extreme vigilance,” said Flautre, underlining that the credibility of the prime minister is at stake. She criticized Erdoğan for making accusations against those investigating the probe rather than calling for light to be shed on the “serious allegations of corruption involving his family. “Allegations are certainly not findings, and justice must now continue its work in serenity and independence,” Flautre said.

Flautre’s statement came after the Council of State’s decision on Friday to cancel the Erdoğan government’s executive order requiring police and prosecutors to notify their superiors of all investigations, which would have effectively given the government advance warning of investigations that should be secret. “This is a serious political crisis and the European Union must stand firmly on the side of the defense of the rule of law, avoiding any exploitation of the situation,” her statement added.

TODAYS ZAMAN

Davutoglu made evaluations on Turkey’s current situation on a private Turkish channel.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Sunday said that Turkey has experienced dynamism and revitalization in the past decade, which will shape the next century too, in a televised interview on a private TV channel “I do not find it right to be dragged into despair for our society,” he said and went on to say that “drawing dark pictures about Turkey’s future is exactly what malevolent circles are wishing to succeed.”

“If a structure suggesting a double authority existence is born, this harms state’s sustainability and functionality but it will give the greatest harm to those congregation-like structures,” he noted.

Turkish FM Davutoglu added that the state in modern democracies receives legitimacy from its only source, the authority taken from people and in today’s modern state structure, political power can only use the authority taken from people and this has objective rules such as elections and monitoring mechanisms.

Turkey overtakes China as top US cotton buyer

Turkey has overtaken China as the biggest buyer of U.S. cotton, U.S. data showed on Dec. 27, as Chinese buyers have boosted their purchases of lower-taxed yarn and cut back on buying raw cotton.

Continuing a five-months-long trend since the Aug. 1 start of the 2013/14 crop marketing season, data for the week to Dec. 19 showed Turkey was the top buyer. It bought 83,400 bales of upland cotton, double that of China.

Turkey’s renewed appetite for U.S. fiber has been a pocket of strength as U.S. traders and growers worry that a decision by Beijing, reported on Dec. 27, to dismantle its three-year stockpiling program will erode foreign demand and hurt prices.

Since the start of the season, Turkey has bought almost 1.72 million 480-lb bales of upland cotton, up more than 40 percent from the same period last year.

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

Economy experiences an inconclusive year

The Turkish economy continued to move ahead of many other countries in 2013, especially in terms of its gross domestic product (GDP) growth, foreign trade and stocks performance for the most part of the year, yet the threats, such as excessive sensitivity to external shocks, the current account deficit (CAD) and growth that fails to lower unemployment, also continued to hang over the economy’s head like the sword of Damocles. But the main risk to the economy this year was political ambiguity.

Overall the economy performed well, continuing its high quarterly growth rates. The country’s GDP registered a growth rate of 3 percent, 4.5 percent and 4.4 percent in the first three quarters respectively. The economic growth in the same nine-month period of the previous year was 4 percent. The unemployment rate, however, climbed to 9.9 percent as of September, a rise of 0.8 percent above the same month of the previous year. In terms of inflation, the central bank’s policies were successful in maintaining a steady rate. The consumer price index (CPI) was 6.16 percent in December 2012, and this edged up to 7.8 percent in November 2013. The CAD was $39.55 billion in the January-October period of 2012, and it rose to $51.9 billion in the same period this year.

TODAYS ZAMAN.

No pause in ‘solution process’, says Turkish FM

“The solution process”, aimed at ending terrorism and addressing issues related to a sizable Kurdish minority, is continuing without any pause, said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Saturday in the eastern province of Van, calling for a “strong stance” against those who try to cause ethnic separatism in Turkey.

Davutoglu said Turkey’s democratization process has “created a restoration” and the hints of a “New Turkey” that welcomes diversity, given by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir in November, proves it.

Erdogan had assured Diyarbakir citizens, many of them weary of decades-long armed conflict on one hand and lackluster development on the other, saying “You will see that those in the mountains will come down, those imprisoned will be free, and the entire population of 76 million people will stand united and create the new Turkey”.

AA

29.12.2013

This is a news-scan from major Turkish papers and internet sites. However, we do not verify above stories neither do we vouch for their accuracy.