News Scan for Turkey – Dec 13th, 2013

Draft law on state secrets prompts concerns in Turkey amid profiling leaks

The draft bill on what constitutes a state secret in Turkey that brings harsh penalties for disclosure has sparked concerns in Turkey against the background of the revelation of confidential documents that exposed massive government profiling of innocent citizens.

The draft law states that disclosing or providing access to pieces of information or documents that might undermine foreign relations, defense or the security of the country or that may pose risks to the constitutional order or foreign relations will be regarded as state secrets. Those who fail to keep classified state documents secret will be punished as outlined by Article 258 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). If state secrets are revealed through the media, press or the Internet, the punishment will be increased by half. This makes a prison term of six years.

Starting last month, the Taraf daily published several confidential documents suggesting that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) profiled individuals linked to some religious and faith-based groups. The party admitted to the authenticity of the documents but argued that no action was taken to implement the policy prescriptions they contained.

TODAYS ZAMAN

Putting Iranian gas on the world market is an important matter which affects price mechanisms.

Turkey looks forward to natural gas supplies from Iran, which has come to an agreement with five EU countries on the matter, said Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz on Friday.

There is some ongoing measures to solve EU countries’ natural gas supply problems with gas from Iran which will be transferred over Turkey, he explained at the meeting of the Petrol Platform Association in Turkish capital Ankara. Given the 90 million tons of natural gas consumption worldwide, the world market and gas prices will be positively affected if supplies increase, he stressed.

Regarding the planned visit to Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Thursday, he added, “This visit will also give positive results for both Turkey and Azerbaijan and EU countries.” The minister had attended on Wednesday the inauguration ceremony of the electric power transmission line which extends from the Georgian town of Akhaltsikhe to the northeastern Turkish city of Borcka.

On November 24, Iran agreed on limiting some of its nuclear activities in exchange for eased sanctions with the five permanent members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council- the US, UK, France, Russia and China-plus Germany, in Geneva.

AA

Turkey’s eased property law lifts sales to foreigners

Turkey’s easing of the property ownership restrictions applied to foreign nationals initiated an upward curve in immovable sales to international investors, according to the head of the leading sector body, the Association of Real Estate and Real Estate Investment Companies (GYODER).

“Brand projects are attracting Gulf investors’ interest on an increasing scale. Istanbul with its completed and ongoing residence/office projects has become an investment center in this regard”, Aziz Torun, GYODER President said about Turkey’s rising attractiveness for foreign property buyers.

The investor-friendly property law enacted last year allows foreign nationals to own property in Turkey regardless of the buyer’s country of origin giving the same right to Turkish citizens, effectively abolishing the ‘reciprocity principle’.

15,086 foreign nationals from 98 countries acquired 21,691 immovables -11,803 residential units and 9,888 land plots- in Turkey in the first 10 months of the year, according to data from Turkey’s Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning. Russians, Germans and Britons ranked as the top buyers of Turkish properties, preferring Turkey’s Mediterranean coast for their investments. Property acquisitions by Gulf investors stood at 2,697 in the same period, with a focus on brand projects in Istanbul. Real estate purchases by foreigners reached a total of USD 2.6 billion in 2012, up 31 percent from the preceding year. The figure is expected to reach USD 3 billion by the end of this year.

DUNYA.COM

Aselsan eyes Goldman Sachs after Chinese missile row

After Merrill Lynch refused Aselsan’s request for it to advise its public offering, Goldman Sachs-Garanti Yatırım consortium is next in line for the deal

Goldman Sachs is set to step into the breach after Merrill Lynch refused Turkish defense firm Aselsan’s request for it to advise and underwrite its public offering because of a missile deal inked by Turkey with a Chinese company under U.S. sanctions, according to Aselsan General Manager Cengiz Ergeneman. “If they are not in, there are other companies. There won’t be any delay in schedule. The company at the second rank is the Garanti Yatırım-Goldman Sachs consortium,” Ergeneman told daily Hürriyet in an interview in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

Questioned by daily Hürriyet last week, Merrill Lynch confirmed that it had refused Aselsan’s offer due to Turkey’s missile deal with China, but declined to give further details of the letter said to have been sent to Aselsan.

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

Istanbul welcomes its ten millionth tourist, a Pakistani family to visit Turkey in 2013

Istanbul welcomed on Friday its ten millionth tourist, a Pakistani family, to visit Turkey’s most attractive and renowned city in 2013.

A welcoming ceremony took place at the city’s Ataturk International Airport. As the family went through passport control, officials from the Culture and Tourism Ministry welcomed the family. Khurram Aleem, the father (38), expressed his happiness at being in Istanbul while his wife, Uzma, added that the family plans to also visit Cappadocia, Pamukkale and Antalya. Officials gifted the family a Turkish coffee set, two-night reservations at a five-star hotel and a dinner at Istanbul’s most beautiful restaurant.

Turkish officials noted that this figure only includes tourists arriving by air and seaports, since those arriving by land routes are not considered as they may not be crossing borders in order to visit Istanbul.

The number of tourists coming to Istanbul has reached ten million for the first time this year

AA

EuroStat ranks Turkey 30th out of 37 countries in purchasing power

According to the EU’s statistics agency, Turkey ranks 30th among 37 countries in terms of the index for gross domestic product (GDP) per capita based on purchasing power parity (PPP), the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) said on Thursday. According to the preliminary results of EuroStat’s European Comparison Program for 2012, the index of GDP per capita based on PPP for Turkey is 54, while the average index for the 28 European Union countries is 100.

Among the 37 countries involved in the comparison, the country with the highest index is Luxembourg, 263, and the country with the lowest is Bosnia and Herzegovina, with 29.

Turkey’s economic growth has substantially slowed since 2011, the year Turkey was named Europe’s fastest-growing economy with a growth rate of 8.5 percent compared to the previous year. But as of 2012, the economy sharply slowed. Last year, the Turkish economy grew by 2.2 percent and this year the economy is expected to grow by nearly 4 percent.

The current account deficit (CAD) is a major threat for the Turkish economy. Despite Turkey’s efforts to decrease the country’s infamous CAD, which was almost $50 billion last year, the ratio of the CAD to gross domestic product is expected to amount to 7.1 percent this year. Last year’s percentage was 6.1, but it is expected to decrease from 7.1 to 6.4 percent next year.

TODAYS ZAMAN

Turkish PM presents Transport Minister Yıldırım as AKP’s candidate for İzmir mayor seat

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım will be running as the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) candidate for the İzmir mayor post, with the ambition of ending the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) dominance in the province. “İzmir has suffered because of the CHP a lot,” Erdoğan said Dec. 13, speaking at a meeting in İzmir, in which he also announced his party’s candidates for 12 more cities, most of which were Aegean provinces. “We saw the CHP’s incompetence on the roads. Now, considering all apparent realities, I believe İzmir will not say CHP again,” he said.

İzmir, Turkey’s third largest province, is one of the few metropolitan municipalities where the main opposition CHP holds the mayor’s post. Although the CHP is confident of another victory in the March 2014 elections, the top local AKP official believes the party has a significant chance of winning this time.

In the last local elections in 2009, the CHP candidate Aziz Kocaoğlu won the mayor’s seat with 55.2 percent of the votes, while the AKP received 30.7 percent.

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

13.12.2013
compiled by Editor BTT,

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.