The long awaited Syrian army campaign to liberate Idlib governorate in Syria’s northwest is supposed to start shortly after September 7, the date when the Turkish, Russian and Iranian presidents will meet. Strong forces have been put into place and are ready to strike. The Russian fleet in the Mediterranean has been strengthened, new air…
Turkey is in the eye of the storm, the rift between Washington and Ankara simmering. It’s all about President Erdogan’s ties with America’s main adversaries – Russia and Iran. He rejects US sanctions on both countries, intends maintaining normal political and economic relations. It’s also about US efforts to marginalize, weaken, contain and isolate Russia,…
It needs a stroke of genius to soften the heart for poor old Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Those of us who have always believed that Erdogan is a bit off his rocker must still be appalled that a US president infinitely more cracked than the Turkish variety is trying to impoverish Nato’s second largest military ally. True,…
Central banks in several regions of the World are building up their gold reserves. A large part of these Central Bank purchases of gold bullion are not disclosed. They are undertaken through third party contracting companies, with utmost discretion. The evidence amply suggests that US dollar holdings and US dollar denominated debt instruments are being…
Financial injections by Qatar and possibly China may resolve Turkey’s immediate economic crisis, aggravated by a politics-driven trade war with the United States, but are unlikely to resolve the country’s structural problems, fuelled by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s counterintuitive interest rate theories. The latest crisis in Turkey’s boom-bust economy raises questions about a development model…
Trump’s attack on the Turkish lira, combined with recent Federal Reserve moves to choke off dollar supply, is pushing the world towards a re-run of the 1997 currency crisis. This may well be the whole point. Last Friday, Donald Trump announced new sanctions on Turkey – comprising a doubling of the steel and aluminum tariffs…
