Aug 14th, 2018- From a friend in Argentina:
Hi .... Just out of curiosity: I´m wondering what the hell is happening over in Turkey. Everyone is talking about a crisis that is affecting our economy, 12.000 k away. The truth is that you have the number one devaluated currency in the world (45%) and we have the second one (37%). Our case is as a result of the neo-liberal policies applied to a country which had -up to December 2015- only 6% unemployment, an industry and internal market thriving, plus only 40% of its GDP in external debt. Now we are literally falling apart, with an unprecedented growth of debt and poverty.
If you could make a summary of what is going on in your country, so as to try to understand how your crisis can affect us, since we are the two most fragile economies in the world at the moment, so they say...
I hope you ... are doing well, despite this situation. Take care!
... the neo-Liberal policies you mention have been in practice for years, the Turkish government was being generously fed by the US, providing us with all the appearance and trappings of increasing affluence. The AKP government, originally endorsed by the US, has been included in (but was not restricted to) a project for the re-arrangement of the Middle-East, its regimes, its borders (including ours), to fit US and Israeli interests. The project (the Greater Middle East Project) called for the transformation of Turkey from a secular national state into a theocratic religious community with no national interest in mind and ready to follow any spiritual leader in whatever direction to which that leader points. The first candidate for that position was (and is) a renegade imam named Fethullah Gülen living in Pennsylvania- a
willing CIA puppet with a sacred status. The role of the AKP and (then) Prime Minister Erdoğan had been to help the Gülen cult infiltrate the judiciary, police, military, press and academic world, and round up all defenders of the secular republic on trumped up charges. This went on until the Gezi riots of 2013, after which the US
tried to get rid of Erdoğan.
But Erdoğan fought back, declared old partner Gülen an enemy, and departed from the U.S. policy of erasing national sentiments. The lenient attitude toward the PKK also changed, turning over US plans in Syria and Iraq, as well as southwest Turkey!
With this change Erdoğan's popularity skyrocketed. The US attempted to bring Erdoğan down with a coup (2016), through Gülen's influence on members who had infiltrated the Forces over the years. Erdoğan emerged even stronger.
Now he has become President, with powers that office never had. The US, under
the bullyish Trump, is now trying to use Turkey's vulnerable economy to reduce Erdoğan to submission. The latest argument is over an American priest named Brunson who was arrested in 2016 as a "spy", for alleged involvement in the coup; the trial is still going on.
August 14th 2018- from my friend in Argentina to me:
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| Gülen and Erdoğan- once close partners! |
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| The Gezi riots of 2013. (Image from the media.) |
But Erdoğan fought back, declared old partner Gülen an enemy, and departed from the U.S. policy of erasing national sentiments. The lenient attitude toward the PKK also changed, turning over US plans in Syria and Iraq, as well as southwest Turkey!
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| Left: PKK "checkpoint" well inside Turkish borders, in or before August 2015. Right: Diyarbakır Sur after the crackdown, December 2015. (Image from the media.) |
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| Left: The bloody night of the failed coup, July 15th 2016, engineered by the US through devotees of the Gülen cult in the Turkish Armed Forces. Right: The victorious Erdoğan defying the world in the aftermath: "You cannot make us (me) bow our (my) head(s), you cannot make us (me) bend our (my) knee(s), you cannot succeed!" (The missing pronoun makes for the intentional ambiguity.) The Islamist turning Nationalist. (Image on left is from the media, the one on the right is from my own camera.) |
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| Evangelist priest Andrew Brunson. (Image from the media.) |
August 14th 2018- from my friend in Argentina to me:
Gosh... well, it seems the recipe is similar all over the world.
And absurdly enough, we are not only importing soap operas from Turkey, also one of the biggest manufactures of fridges, the old Argentinian multinational Siam, is firing 100 employees to start importing fridges from Turkey...
Our economy is crumbling, many things in common: the suppression of all national ideas or attempts at a solution of our problems, our resources as the main goal of USA and no chances of an internal market which was what saved our economy from all storms around the world for twelve years.
Our absurd government has a lack of dollars after allowing producers to sell their crops and send their dollars wherever they please, they reduced taxes to producers and to the mining business, and opened up our market to all imports from anywhere. The result being a dying industry, lack of foreign currency and a return of the IMF. God save us...
Take care, now I have a clearer view of what´s going on...
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It seems our gobernantes is trying to use the Turkish situation to tell us that the economy is crumbling all over the world, which is not true...
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But more than one country suffers from the U.S. using the Dollar as a weapon. Our neighbors Russia and Iran are both suffering from U.S. sanctions, as we are. In our case, it is more offensive because we are supposed to be allies. If we a-move out of Iraq and Syria, or better still, follow the US policies there, b- allow an independent Kurdistan in the area, part of it to be carved out of Turkey, c- give up on Cyprus, d- give up on our rights in the Mediterranean e- join in sanctions on Iran, even contribute to a military operation against it, f- give up on planned arms purchases from non-NATO countries and g- kiss and make up with Gülen and allow his minions back into positions of power and influence, the dollars will come back rolling in and we will once again be lulled into an impression of power.
Sorry for my misspellings, Android attempts to turn what I write into Spanish 
I see the situation. I'm afraid that over here, these gang of CEOs in power is just using the situation to convince people that they're not clumsy, it's just a "world crisis". The truth is that our debt has gone up to 80% of our GDP, they have offered our resources as guarantee of payment, which means that the second largest lithium deposit in the world could end up in foreign hands.
We have a whole history of the sort over here. Right wing in Argentina means "I work for foreign interests, aka U.S.A.". If matters continue like this, we'll be on the brink of a default. There is no money to pay back....
Extremely similar circumstances, the only difference being the dollar being used for political leverage. The "world crisis" might have some truth in it, though, since the system encourages borrowing from the future. We have two religious holidays, which are always extended to cover a whole week. Some banks offer families loans to splurge on those holidays, to
be repaid in installments over several years. The result is that, once
you get a taste of it and turn it into a habit, your debt increases much
faster than you can repay it.
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| Stranded holidaygoers during present religious holiday- Kurban Bayramı, the "Sacrificial Holiday". The government once again generously extended it to 9 days, and once again, the population is splurging. We'll sacrifice lambs and cattle but not our luxuries- not even in an economic crisis! (Image from the media.) |
Hi again... Would you mind if I published our recent communication about our crumbling economy on my blog? It would be a quick and easy way for me to write something about the situation, and would add interest by referring to your side of the story as well.
Aug. 22nd, 2018- from my friend in Argentina to me:
Hi... go ahead, no problem. If you want to add that our president is on the Panama papers list without consequences, that he is considered one of the three most corrupt presidents in the world and that thanks to the return of the IMF we are on the way to become the Greece of the south in record time, OK with me. Take care.
(I corrected the typos and rephrased one unclear sentence.)
