Yabancı Basından Seçmeler

[Balder]

Türkiye İran'a ABD nin koyacağı ambargodan etkilenmemek için görüşmelere başladı.

http://www.france24.com/en/20180720-...iran-sanctions

Turkey on Friday hosted an American delegation for talks to address concerns about the potential negative impact on its economy of the looming reimposition of US sanctions against Iran.

US President Donald Trump decided in May to abandon the 2015 deal agreed with other world powers on Iran's nuclear programme and reimpose nuclear-related sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The sanctions, which will seek to bar foreign companies from doing business with Iran and block its oil sales abroad, have alarmed Turkey which has a strong trade relationship with its neighbour and imports Iranian crude.

"Our relevant authorities are carrying out necessary work for Turkey not to be negatively impacted by the upcoming sanctions," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Within this framework, we had discussions with the US delegation visiting Turkey," it said, without giving further details.

It added that "Iran is an important neighbour for Turkey, in view of both our bilateral economic and commercial relations as well as our energy imports."

Turkish officials have vowed to continue trading with Iran despite the sanctions, which the former economy minister Nihat Zeybekci in May described as an "opportunity".

Asking not to be named, a US official acknowledged that the sanctions were "a very important and potentially contentious issue between the two governments."

He said the delegation had come "to make clear what the implications of our sanction legislation are, so there are no misunderstandings and confusion."

"The earlier we have these high level talks..., the less likely we are to wander into new areas of disagreement out of ignorance," said the official.

Relations between Turkey and the US have already been strained after a Turkish banker who helped Iran evade US sanctions was convicted in the US in January.

Mehmet Haka Atilla was convicted after well-connected Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, arrested in the US in 2016, became a government witness and admitted involvement in a multi-billion-dollar gold-for-oil scheme to subvert US economic sanctions against Iran.

During his testimony, Zarrab implicated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials in the scheme. In May, a Manhattan court sentenced Atilla to 32 months in jail.

Annual trade between Turkey and Iran is around $10 billion but Erdogan has expressed hope of raising it to $30 billion. Iran supplies Turkey with around one half of its crude oil imports and Iranian tourists are increasingly important for the Turkish market.

[Balder]

Yeni Türkiye

The Economist yazdı.

Having cost more than 50,000 people their freedom and at least 125,000 civil servants their jobs, the country’s state of emergency ended today, almost two years to the day after it began. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proclaimed emergency law in July 2016, shortly after a failed coup claimed more than 250 lives, and has used it to purge the army and other state institutions of followers of the Gulen movement, the Islamic sect he accuses of masterminding the plot. It has also proved a handy excuse to get rid of other government critics. Mr Erdogan recently won re-election, inaugurating a new constitution that hands him full control of the executive, weakens parliament and judges, and allows the president to rule by decree. Over the past week he has also beefed up Turkey’s already draconian anti-terrorism laws. The state of emergency may be gone, but the fear in the air is not.

[Balder]

2016'da yaşanan darbe girişiminden bu yana Türkiye'de yaşanan olağanüstü halin sona ermesi güzel bir adımdır. Aynı zamanda, yetkililere olağanüstü yetki veren yeni kanunların kabul edilmesinin ve olağanüstü halin çeşitli kısıtlayıcı unsurlarının muhafaza edilmesinin, fesihin tüm olumlu etkilerini ortadan kaldıracağına inanıyoruz.

Avrupa Birliği açıklaması.
https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/...e-emergency_en

The end of the state of emergency in place in Turkey since the coup attempt of 2016 is a welcome step. At the same time, we believe the adoption of new legislative proposals granting extraordinary powers to the authorities and retaining several restrictive elements of the state of emergency would dampen any positive effect of its termination.

We reaffirm our expectations that Turkey implements the key recommendations of the Council of Europe, the Venice Commission and other relevant institutions and to respect the separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary.

In view of the termination of the state of emergency we also expect Turkey to follow through and reverse all measures that continue to impact negatively on the rule of law, independence of the judiciary and the fundamental freedoms that are at the core of any democratic state. These include freedom of expression, freedom of association and procedural rights. And we expect Turkey's derogations from its obligations under the European Convention for Human Rights to cease with the lifting of the state of emergency.

Concrete and lasting improvements in the area of rule of law and fundamental freedoms remain essential to the prospects of EU-Turkey relations.