A government decision to offer free natural gas for one month and a discount for a year will help consumers to save 40 billion Turkish Liras (around $2.1 billion) in gas costs, according to Mustafa Yilmaz, head of the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK), Trend reports citing Hurriyet Daily News.

Last month, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that consumers will not be charged for the natural gas consumption at all residences in Türkiye for one month.

Additionally, the cost of natural gas required for kitchen and hot water consumption, which is equivalent to an average of 25 cubic meters per month, will be deducted from the bills for one year.

The respective presidential decree on the natural gas was published in the Official Gazette.

The free natural gas scheme will be in effect between April 24 and May 31, while the discounted price arrangement will last until May 1, 2024, said Yılmaz.

There are 19.7 million natural gas subscribers, and 2.8 million houses are connected to the national grid, Yilmaz added. “We have around 320,000 pre-paid consumers.”

“Natural gas distribution companies will pay the utmost attention and we will closely follow this process,” Yilmaz said.

Source: Trend

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The shortage of personnel in the troops of the National Guard will prevent Russia from establishing full control over all the occupied territories of Ukraine, according to one of the secret documents of the US Department of Defense, which got into the Network and studied by Radio Liberty.

From a document dated late February 2023, it follows that in August 2022, at least 27,500 servicemen of the National Guard of the Russian Federation were on Ukrainian territory. Since then, as noted in the document, these troops have suffered significant losses. The report emphasizes: the National Guard has taken on numerous additional tasks to keep the territories captured by Russia behind the front lines, which further exacerbated the shortage of personnel.

Troops of the National Guard of Russia (Rosgvardia) were formed from employees of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2016. According to official data for 2017, 340,000 employees were in the ranks of the Russian Guard. At the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, significant losses near Kiev and Kharkov were suffered by the OMON units that were part of the Russian Guard, with the help of which it was planned to maintain order in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

On August 30, Director of the National Guard Viktor Zolotov reported to Vladimir Putin that “the troops of the National Guard in the special operation zone in Ukraine ensure security, law and order in Russian-controlled settlements, fight saboteurs, guard especially important objects.”

At the same time, in the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, attempts are regularly made on the Russian military, officials, as well as on Ukrainians collaborating with the occupation authorities. According to Ukrainian journalists, in 2022 alone, in the occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions of Ukraine, 12 officials and security officials were killed, mostly Ukrainian citizens who retained or took their positions after the occupation.

American serviceman Jack Teixeira was arrested on charges of leaking classified information from the Pentagon . The US Department of Defense does not comment on the content of the leaked documents.

Source: Radio Ozodlik

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The opposition parties have united against Erdogan and are officially supported by Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party. Most polls show Erdogan trailing his secular rival by a few points, and Kilicdaroglu is trying to break the 50-percent threshold to avoid a runoff.

Erdogan has played up religious themes to energize his conservative and nationalist base and brand the opposition as a “pro-LGBT” lobby taking orders from the West. Despite soaring tensions and fears over what Erdogan would do if he lost a narrow vote, he pledged to respect the vote if the people changed their minds.

‘The West got mad’ 

The Hagia Sophia was built as a Byzantine cathedral — once the world’s largest — before being converted into a mosque by the Ottomans.

It was converted into a museum when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk created a secular post-Ottoman Turkey in 1923.

Erdogan’s decision to convert it back into a mosque in 2020 solidified his hero status among his religious supporters and contributed to growing Western unease with his rule.

“The entire West got mad — but I did it,” Erdogan told an Istanbul rally on Saturday.

Erdogan has played up religious themes and used culture wars to try and energise his conservative and nationalist base.

He brands the opposition as a “pro-LGBT” lobby that takes orders from outlawed Kurdish militants and is bankrolled by the West.

Source: Greek City Times

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During Erdoğan’s 20 years as the leader of Turkey, his government has consolidated power and imprisoned critics. His government has also persecuted and disenfranchised the country’s Kurdish minority by overturning the results of local elections won by pro-Kurdish parties, killing hundreds of Kurdish civilians in the city of Cizre in 2016, and imprisoning and beating pro-Kurdish members of parliament. 

Turkey has been in an economic crisis since 2018 that is largely the result of Erdoğan’s unorthodox policies. He has refused to raise interest rates to rein in inflation, leading the Turkish lira to lose 44 per cent of its value in 2021.

Inflation surged to over 85 per cent last year while rents in some cities rose more than 100 per cent. Poor construction practices and a lack of government oversight amid a building boom worsened the devastation of the February earthquakes that killed 50,000. Georgia and Armenia now have higher per capita incomes than neighbouring provinces of Turkey and could surpass the Turkish average within five years. 

When it comes to foreign policy, Erdoğan has pursued an interventionist approach, making Turkey a key actor in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Kosovo, Ukraine, and Nagorno-Karabakh. Even as he causes headaches for Brussels, Turkey remains an indispensable partner for NATO.  

The EU and NATO 

Turkey applied to join the then European Economic Community in 1987, and the European Council granted European Union candidate status to Turkey in 1999. Accession negotiations began in 2005, but in 2018, the Council said they had reached a standstill in light of “continuing and deeply worrying backsliding on the rule of law and on fundamental rights” under Erdoğan.

Unlike other EU candidates, Turkey was never granted visa liberalisation with the Schengen Area—a source of continued frustration within the country. Kılıçdaroğlu campaigned on securing visa-free travel for Turkish citizens.  

Relations with Turkey remain vital for the EU, however, as two member states (Greece and Bulgaria) share borders with Turkey. Turkey hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees and largely controls the flow of many refugees and migrants from the Middle East to the EU.  

Most of the EU is also an ally of Turkey in NATO, and Turkey has the second largest armed forces in the alliance after only the United States. However, in recent years, major schisms have emerged within the alliance as Erdoğan has broken with the rest of the bloc over admitting new members and military interventions. 

The US and many other NATO members support a coalition of ethnic militias known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). The SDF played a major role in defeating the Islamic State (IS) and a component Kurdish militia (YPG) helped save Yezidis in Iraq from genocide by IS. 

Turkey, however, claims the YPG, and thus the SDF, is linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is classifies as a terrorist organisation. Erdoğan has supported the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamist rebel groups sanctioned by the US for war crimes as proxies in Syria. The Turkish military and its proxies have launched incursions into the AANES that have allegedly seen widespread war crimes and the ethnic cleansing of Kurds and other minorities. Turkish airstrikes on the SDF in Syria have come within 300 metres of US troops, and the US and other NATO members have condemned the incursions and warned they threaten the ability of the SDF to keep 10,000 captured IS fighters in detention. 

After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, EU members Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO. Erdoğan, however, stonewalled the accession of both countries over demands that they stop Quran burnings and deport Kurdish rights activists with ties to the YPG, including those who are Swedish citizens and asylum seekers.  

Officials in Helsinki and Stockholm have said the deportation of their citizens and asylum-seekers violate their laws and that Quran burning is protected as free speech. Erdoğan eventually let Finland join the alliance after he said it addressed Turkey’s concerns about Kurdish groups, but he has still refused to allow Sweden to join.  

Turkey’s actions in Syria spawned calls to boot it from NATO, and its refusal to allow Sweden to enter has generated even more calls to eject Ankara unless it changes its tune. 

Ukraine 

In Ukraine, the same Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones used by the Turkish government to kill Kurds are celebrated for their role helping to repel Russian forces. Baykar Defence, the Turkish defence contractor led by Erdoğan’s son-in-law, donated drones to Ukraine that have subsequently become the subject of songs and memes as a symbol of resistance.  

Erdoğan has voiced support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and the rights of Crimean Tatars—a Muslim Turkic indigenous group in Crimea that has faced discrimination since Russia illegally annexed the peninsula. Turkey, however, maintains better relations with Moscow than most of NATO and has continued to welcome Russian business even as the rest of the bloc sanctioned it. Turkey used its relative neutrality to secure a deal that allowed Ukraine to export its grain.  

Despite its rights violations and the headaches it gives even its closest allies, it is unlikely to withdraw from NATO anytime soon. Erdoğan will continue to project Turkish power to maintain his country’s status as a regional power with sway around the Mediterranean and Eurasia in hopes of securing concessions from the EU on visa liberalisation and from NATO on the sale of coveted F-16 fighter aircraft from Washington.

Erdoğan is likely to eventually allow Sweden to join NATO in exchange for more good behaviour in Ukraine and F-16s, which will almost certainly be used by Turkey to strike Kurdish areas of Syria and Iraq. Brussels and Ankara will continue to see what concessions may be extracted from each other as new challenges arise during Erdoğan’s next term.  

Source: Emerging Europe

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“If anyone can do this, I can do it,” he declared in a victory speech last Sunday, referring to his ability to solve the country’s calamitous economic problems.

His brash confidence is not widely shared by most analysts and economists.

The Turkish lira dropped to a record low against the dollar this week, and foreign investors have been disheartened by the president’s refusal to stray from what is widely considered to be an eccentric economic course.

Instead of combating dizzying inflation by raising interest rates and making borrowing more expensive — as most economists recommend — Mr. Erdogan has repeatedly lowered rates. He argues that cheap credit will boost manufacturing and exports.

But his strategy is also fueling inflation, now running at an annual rate of 44 percent, and eroding the value of the Turkish lira. Attempts by the government to prop up the faltering currency have drained the dwindling pool of foreign reserves.

As the lira’s value drops, the price of imported goods — like medicine, energy, fertilizer and automobile parts — rises, making it more expensive for consumers to afford daily costs. And it raises the size of debt payments for businesses and households that have borrowed money from foreign lenders.

The national budget is also coming under increasing strains. The destructive earthquakes in February that ripped up swaths of southern Turkey are estimated to have caused more than a billion dollars in damage, roughly 9 percent of the country’s annual economic output.

At the same time, Mr. Erdogan went on a pre-election spending spree to attract voters, increasing salaries for public sector workers and payouts for retirees and offering households a month of free natural gas. The expenditures pushed up growth, but economists fear that such outlays will feed inflation.

An effort to encourage Turks to keep their savings in lira by guaranteeing their balances against currency depreciations further adds to the government’s potential liabilities.

Critics of the president’s economic approach were somewhat heartened by reports that Mr. Erdogan is expected this weekend to appoint Mehmet Simsek, a former finance minister and deputy prime minister, to the cabinet. Mr. Simsek is well thought of in financial circles and has previously supported a tighter monetary policy.

“What Turkey really needs now is more exports and more foreign direct investment, and for that you have to send a signal,” said Henri Barkey, an international relations professor at Lehigh University. One signal could be Mr. Simsek’s appointment, he said.

Mr. Barkey argues that Mr. Erdogan will have no choice but to make a U-turn on policy by winter, when energy import costs rise and some debt payments are due.

Others are more skeptical that Mr. Erdogan will back down from his insistence that high interest rates fuel inflation. Kadri Tastan, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, a public policy think tank based in Brussels, said that regardless of the cabinet’s makeup, he didn’t believe a policy turnaround was imminent.

“I’m quite pessimistic about an enormous change, of course,” he said.

To deal with the large external deficit and depleted central bank reserves, Mr. Erdogan has been relying on allies like Russia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to help bolster its reserves by depositing dollars with the central bank or extending payment deadlines and discounts for imported goods like natural gas.

In a note to investors this week, Capital Economics wrote that any optimism about a policy shift is likely to be short-lived: “While policymakers like Simsek would probably pursue more restrained fiscal policy than we had envisaged, we doubt Erdogan would give the central bank license to hike policy rates to restore balance to the economy.”

Turkey’s more than $900 billion economy makes it the eighth largest in Europe. And Mr. Erdogan’s efforts to position himself as a power broker between Russia and the European allies since the war in Ukraine began has further underscored Turkey’s geopolitical influence.

Mr. Erdogan, who has been in power for two decades, built his electoral success on growth-oriented policies that lifted millions of Turks into the middle class. But the pumped-up expansion wasn’t sustainable.

The borrowing frenzy drove up prices, spurring a cost-of-living crisis. Still, Mr. Erdogan persisted in lowering interest rates and fired central bank chiefs who disagreed with him. The pandemic exacerbated problems by reducing demand for Turkish exports and limiting tourism, a large source of income.

Mr. Erdogan is likely to keep up his expansionary policies until the next local elections take place next year. Until then, Hakan Kara, the former chief economist of the Central Bank of Turkey, said the country would probably just “muddle through.”

“Turkish authorities will have to make tough decisions after the local elections, as something has to give in eventually,” Mr. Kara said. “Turkey has to either switch back to conventional policies, or further deviate from the free market economy where the central authority manages the economy through micro-control measures.”

“In either case,” he added, “the adjustment is likely to be painful.”

Source: The New York Times

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Voters in both Turkiye and Greece went to the polls this month, and those in Turkiye will do so again on Sunday in a presidential election runoff between incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

In Greece, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s center-right New Democracy party demolished its main rivalsin elections for the Hellenic Parliament, unexpectedly increasing its share of the vote but falling just short of an outright majority. As a result, Mitsotakis called for another snap election in June.

Both elections are significant for two countries which in the past few months have engaged into a process of rapprochement. Depending on the outcomes, the neighboring NATO allies will draw a new path in their relationship. Although they have been going through critical elections, the rhetoric of the leaderships in the two capitals has not escalated, unlike in previous eras. Moreover, ahead of the elections, both Erdoğan and Mitsotakis conveyed mutually positive messages for bilateral ties. Erdoğan said that hostility and competition could be set aside, hoping that the elections in Greece and Turkiye would mark the beginning of a new era.

With the same tone, Greece also sent a positive message right after the May 14 polls. Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said he hoped whichever governments were in place in Greece and Turkey after elections would continue a rapprochement instead of seeking the return of tensions. “Honestly, I believe that it would be a dream to erase Greek-Turkish differences from the map and have the two countries collaborate,” Dendias said, and they could work together on energy projects in the Aegean and East Mediterranean.

Both elections are significant for two countries which in the past few months have engaged into a process of rapprochement.

Sinem Cengiz

In March, Dendias and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met in Brussels and agreed that Turkey would support Greece’s campaign for the UN Security Council in 2025-2026. In return, Greece said that it would back Turkey’s candidacy for secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization.

Aside from the elections marathon, two significant developments have led both Turkiye and Greece to put aside their differences in territorial and energy disputes. First was the devastating earthquakes that hit Turkiye in early February, which generated huge support from the Greek side. Greece was among the first countries to convey condolences, offer aid and send search and rescue teams to quake-hit cities. Second was the deadly train crash in northern Greece that killed at least 57 the same month. Turkiye was the first country to offer condolences and aid following the train accident. The solidarity and goodwill demonstrated by two neighbors toward each other have paved the way to opening a new page in relations in light of the “disaster diplomacy.” Upon these developments, Turkiye also allowed a Greek prisoner to visit Greece to attend his son’s funeral.

Following the meeting between the Turkish and Greek foreign ministers, the defense ministers came together in April. In a very rare visit, Greek Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos visited Turkiye upon the invitation of his Turkish counterpart. Normally, the heated rhetoric about Turkish-Greek disputes comes from the defense ministers of two countries. Therefore, the visit was symbolically very significant. Traditionally, two neighbors, situated on seismic fault lines, help each other in times of natural disasters, while hitting each other in the wake of elections. It is not the case this time as different factors have been in play on both sides.

First, there has been ongoing German mediation behind the scenes between two neighbors. The current positive climate plays into the hands of the socialist-led government of Olaf Scholz, who aims to resolve the disputes between Ankara and Athens. In the aftermath of every election, opportunities and challenges arise in the sphere of foreign policy. On the Greek side, Mitsotakis’s winning control of the parliament is not likely to bring a change in Greek foreign policy. However, a change of presidency in Turkiye might lead to a significant change in the foreign policy of the country.

The current positive climate plays into the hands of the socialist-led government of Olaf Scholz, who aims to resolve the disputes between Ankara and Athens.

Sinem Cengiz

It is noteworthy to understand how Turkish presidential rivals are perceived in Greece. Greek media has mostly approached Kılıçdaroğlu with concern, although he is a secular and pro-Western official. Kılıçdaroğlu, on several occasions, has raised the issue of demilitarizing Greece’s eastern Aegean islands. Kılıçdaroğlu has even criticized both Mitsotakis and Erdoğan for being populist, while pledging that he would solve the issue of the armament of the Aegean islands when he assumes power. While Greeks have been concerned about Kılıçdaroğlu and depict him as a danger in Turkish-Greek relations, Turks residing in Greece have voted in favor of Kılıçdaroğlu in the May 14 elections, rather than Erdoğan. This was an interesting trend.

Thus, it remains to be seen what the outcome of the Sunday’s election in Turkiye would bring out. In any scenario, whether change or continuity, maintaining the rapprochement trend between Athens and Ankara is crucial, as the two neighbors face similar internal and regional problems, including Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Syrian refugee issue and economic difficulties. In the post-election era, instead of consuming their energies on endless disputes, both leaderships should focus on ways to build mutual trust in bilateral relations and ways of cooperation for mutual benefit. That path will certainly not be a bed of roses, but there is always light amid the darkness.

Source: Arab News

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Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” won the Palme d’Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival in a ceremony Saturday that handed the festival’s prestigious top prize to a twisty French Alps courtroom drama. 

“Anatomy of a Fall” is only the third film directed by a woman to win the Palme d’Or. It stars Sandra Hüller as a writer trying to prove her innocence in her husband’s death. Cannes’ Grand Prix, its second prize, went to Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest,” a chilling Martin Amis adaptation about a German family living next door to Auschwitz.

Turkish actress Merve Dizdar and Japan’s Koji Yakusho won the best actress and actor awards on Saturday at the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Tran Anh Hung won best director for “The Pot-au-Feu.”

Turkey’s Merve Dizdar won best actress for “About Dry Grasses”, the latest from festival favorite Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

She said she played “someone who is fighting for her life and she has overcome a lot of difficulties.”

“Under normal circumstances, I would have to work hard on this character in order to understand her but I live in a part of the country which enabled me to fully understand who she is,” she said.

“I understand what it is, being a woman in that area.”

The film focuses on a dejected schoolteacher frustrated with his life in a remote Anatolian village.

Shot in Ceylan’s visually arresting style, it looks at teacher-pupil relations and the roots of political engagement.

Ceylan previously won the Palme d’Or for “Winter Sleep”, among multiple awards he has received over the years at the Cannes Film Festival.

Japan’s Koji Yakusho won best actor at Cannes for “Perfect Days” by German director Wim Wenders, a touching tale about a Tokyo toilet cleaner.

“I want to specifically thank Wim Wenders… who truly created a magnificent character,” he said as he received the award.

The festival, which closed on Saturday evening, sometimes felt like a dream retirement home populated by aging male icons.

There was a glitzy out-of-competition premiere for the new Indiana Jones movie, with an 80-year-old Harrison Ford getting weepy when he received an honorary Palme d’Or.

Martin Scorsese, also 80, premiered his much-anticipated Native American epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” with Robert De Niro, 79.

European auteurs Marco Bellocchio, 83, Wim Wenders, 77, and Victor Erice, 82, all brought new films.

The oldest of all, 86-year-old Ken Loach, showed he still had fighting spirit with the final entry in the competition on Friday, “The Old Oak”, a moving homage to working-class solidarity.

Loach has had no fewer than 15 films in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Source: Cbs News

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Deputy FM of Turkmenistan Vepa Hajiyev took part in the China-Central Asia Foreign Ministers meeting, trend reports citing the Turkmen Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The meeting, which took place on April 27 in the Chinese city of Xi’an, was attended by the heads of the foreign ministries of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China, priority issues of cooperation were discussed, topical areas of further partnership were outlined.

The participants of the event noted the important role of cooperation in the Central Asia – China format in the context of intensifying joint efforts aimed at strengthening the constructive partnership of the participating countries of the format on a wide range of issues.

Vepa Hajiyev noted that the Turkmen side expresses confidence that it is the proximity and coincidence of approaches to fundamental issues of the regional and global agenda, based on the vast experience of interaction and good-neighborliness, that provides a unique opportunity to develop modern tools for further establishing cooperation between the countries of Central Asia and China.

Following the meeting, an Information Communique on the fourth meeting of foreign Ministers of the Central Asia – China format and the Minutes of the meeting were signed.

Source: MENA FN

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Source: EIN News

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The parliamentary elections are stage two of Tokayev’s program, following his re-election winning 80 percent of the votes last November. The coming elections will see 70 percent of the country´s lawmakers elected through party lists, while the remaining seats will be contested in single-member districts. While it has become easier to register a new political party on paper, there are concerns that the Justice Ministry is still rejecting applications from anyone critical of the government. Party registration remains difficult, especially for anyone critical of the government, and this has raised concerns about the potential for a “pocket parliament” controlled by the presidential administration.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who came to power in 2019, called for snap elections of the lower house of parliament on March 19

Despite these concerns, a couple of parties have made it through the registration process, becoming the first new parties to be registered in two decades. The Respublica party, led by once-apolitical businessman Beibit Alibekov, has been approved and supports advancing Tokayev’s Jana Kazakhstan agenda. The Baitak party bills itself as a green party, but its leader, Azamatkhan Amirtayev, has faced criticism for taking the side of officials in a dispute with eco-activists over plans to drain a local lake.

Legacy parties from the Nazarbayev era, such as Amanat (formerly Nur Otan), are not looking as strong as they once did, with the ultimate loyalties of these parties far from certain. The rural interests Auyl (Village) party and the National Social Democratic Party, or OSDP, are also contesting, but the OSDP is recently considered a spent force.

Despite the challenges, there is a sense of hope amongst the people that the lower house parliamentary elections will pave the way for a more democratic Kazakhstan. Tokayev has made it clear that he wants to build a new Kazakhstan, free from the corrupt cronyism that prevailed in the Nazarbayev era. The president’s sweeping reform agenda includes political liberalization and the elections are an important step in that direction.

The people of Kazakhstan are eagerly awaiting the results of the elections and are hoping that they will mark a turning point in the country’s history. “It is important for Tokayev that new personalities appear in the Majilis who are going to participate in the construction of a New Kazakhstan while also respecting the political rules established by the authorities,” Tolganay Umbetaliyeva, Director General of the Central Asian Foundation for Democracy, said.

With new parties emerging and the potential for change on the horizon, there is reason to be optimistic about the future of democracy in Kazakhstan. By doing so, Kazakhstan can take a major step towards a more democratic future. The government must ensure that the elections are free and fair, and that all parties and candidates have an equal chance to participate. Political observers are cautiously optimistic but point out the big bear in the room, Russia. The question how the regime in Moscow will react to the liberalization moves remains a riddle. 

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