Why can't Izmir become like Barcelona?
Güven Sak, PhD
10 May 2013
It is not the residents of Izmir who decrease the attractiveness of the city. It is Ankara and its ill-designed policies concerning Izmir. Every year in Turkey, around 2.5 million citizens migrate within the country. Domestic migration continues to change the appearance of Turkey. The Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) has been releasing domestic migration statistics since 2008. According to this, domestic migration to Izmir has been slowing down since 2010. The city has been losing its attraction. Why?
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A complicated situation
Fatih Özatay, PhD
09 May 2013
We are faced with a complicated situation. Evidently, the critical challenge is that there are several monetary policy targets. Given the Central Bank’s (CB) discourse and messages in the last couple of years, members will probably have a hard time in the next Monetary Policy Committee meeting. Taking the statements of the CB into account, there are several reasons both to cut and to not cut or even to increase interest rates.
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Constitutional change and the Kurdish problem
Nihat Ali Özcan, PhD
09 May 2013
These days, the PKK will be gradually withdrawing its militants. This process is expected to last until September. In order to understand how this process might unfold, one needs a closer look at the PKK’s political-military strategy and the Constitution-making process.The withdrawal will stir two kinds of political process. The first kind will involve the regions left behind by the PKK militants. There, it will be important for the PKK to continue to control the people with new tools without succumbing to other sub-state actors. The second process will entail the increasing pressure on the prime minister regarding the political arrangements to be made after the withdrawal.The government does not want to see a gunfight between the state security forces and the militants during the
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Moving ministry buildings uptown is a bad idea
Güven Sak, PhD
07 May 2013
Apart from the environmental factors, the implications of moving ministries to the suburbs for democracy are worth noting. Have you ever thought of the behavior patterns of Turks? Let me start for you. The people of Turkey, regardless of their ethnic origins, prefer discussing the problems of the country over discussing those of their neighborhood. Is it because the institutional infrastructure of the country is distorted more than that of the neighborhood? I don’t know the reason, but this is the obvious fact. Today let me talk about a tendency visible in Ankara, based on my observations of my neighborhood.
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Monetary policy and the brown pill
Fatih Özatay, PhD
07 May 2013
Not only does the savings rate go downhill; international comparisons validate the underperformance. While we were almost convinced that everything was fine, I am afraid that new risks for the future are piling up. First is the high possibility of having deposit rates below inflation while domestic savings rate has been crashing down. Second is about the reserve options mechanism, ROM, which allows banks to keep reserve requirements in FX. I think there is a similar mentality underlying the ROM and the latest airport tender being carried out in Euro terms. Though the two might seem to be irrelevant at first glance, both aim to encourage people to keep and borrow FX rather than lira. Moreover, the mechanism is self-fulfilling: the incentive requisites such actions.
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Positive, as expected and a question mark
Fatih Özatay, PhD
04 May 2013
Taking into account the capacity utilization and real sector confidence figures for April, it is doubtful whether the recovery implied by import growth will be sustainable. I would like to make a brief assessment of the latest figures. As released yesterday, annual CPI inflation decreased remarkably from 7.3 percent in March to 6.1 percent in April. Similarly, all core inflation indicators decreased: headline inflation to which the Central Bank attaches special importance eased by 0.4 points month-on-month and decreased to 5.4 percent.
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Turkish Cypriots need a vision
Güven Sak, PhD
04 May 2013
Turkish Cypriots are much like us in many ways, yet different. I was in Girne the other day and was a little late to pick up the car from its parking place. It was around 11:30 p.m., mind you. Not that late. But the parking place was closed already. Well, closed is a relative term. Everybody working there had gone home, but they left the doors open for the convenience of latecomers such as myself. This was not a garage in an obscure part of the island, but just inside Girne, close to all those restaurants and casinos. Tourism is the bread and butter of Girne, yet the owners of the parking lot grant you free parking if it gets too late for them, not for you. I wonder at what hour of the day they expect to make money in that place. Let me tell you one thing: That never happens in
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Cyprus gives hints of Turkey’s future
Güven Sak, PhD
03 May 2013
Turkey has to reduce the authority of either the prime minister or the president. Otherwise, what has happened on the Island will happen here. I will not write about the administrative impotence Istanbul demonstrated on May Day, which made the city look like Damascus or Aleppo in the eyes of the entire world. I did not want to write about the clashes in a heat. Instead, I want to talk about another sentimental reaction, the article on the direct election for the presidency. That article is a big problem for us. Turkey has an ongoing presidential system issue. Let me tell you how.
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Barzani and the PKK
Nihat Ali Özcan, PhD
02 May 2013
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has announced that it will withdraw its militants to Iraqi Kurdistan. This could cause some trouble for the Iraqi Kurdish administration, and the more frequent diplomatic visits by the Turkish and U.S. governments show that they seem to have noticed Barzani’s concerns. Let’s consider the history of these concerns.Relations between the PKK and the Iraqi Kurdish groups go back to the late 1970s, when Öcalan was ideologically closer to Talabani than Barzani. However, regional developments and geopolitics forced Barzani and Öcalan to get closer.In 1982, as the Iran-Iraq War continued, Iran, Syria, Barzani and the PKK formed an alliance in Damascus. Iran persuaded Barzani to cooperate with the PKK. In return, Barzani helped the PKK form its first camps i
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How many people are there in Turkey setting up a business with his army friend?
Ussal Sahbaz
30 April 2013
Last year in October, I attended the DLD conference in Israel with the 212 team. DLD (Digital Life Design) is held every year in Munich and Tel Aviv. We missed the one in Munich. But, the DLD in Israel and in Munich are quite different. The one in Israel is very far from the German-style seriousness; panelists wearing shorts, participants which are 'networking' during the meetings are customary parts of the events.
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