Champions League Venue & more– 13th June 2023

Merhaba from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 13th June twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

Let’s kick off this episode with some news on the Champions League final…

Recall that a month ago, the UEFA had concerns about possible unrest in the country following the elections, and was ready to move the venue on short notice. Well, in the end, that wasn’t necessary. On Saturday the 10th, the Champions League held the final in Istanbul. Manchester City won the match with a score of 1-0 against Inter Milan.

Before the match, the Champions League advised tourists traveling to Istanbul for the match to avoid traveling by taxi in the city. Taxis in the city are notorious for overcharging, especially to tourists. Taxis’ behavior was called into question, and was slammed for giving a bad reputation to the country.

The taxi problem is an ongoing issue in İstanbul, since taxis cherry pick their customers and they tend to give service to foreign looking people as they tend to have more money.

Still on the Championship League…

On Saturday the 10th, the Istanbul Airport had over 1,500 takeoffs and landings, breaking the world record for air traffic.

On that note, football fans coming to the country are said to have brought over 200 million dollars toTurkey.

Let’s talk about another record…

This week, the value of the lira against the dollar has dropped drastically, with an exchange rate of twenty-three liras per dollar.

More on the economy…

On Friday the 9th, President Erdoğan appointed Hafize Gaye Erkan as the new governor of the Central Bank.

Moreover, recall that Turkey has been dropping the policy interest rate since twenty twenty-one, a move that caused inflation to soar in the country. However, reportedly, the new finance minister, Mehmet Şimşek, got permission to increase the interest rate up to 20% in the next two months. Currently, the rate is at 8%. Whereas, the JPMorgan, an investment bank in the United States, speculate that the new Central Bank Governor will probably increase the rate to 25% next week. The bank also predicts that Turkey will go into recession in the second half of this year.

Let’s move on to some scandal news…

This week, the personal data of millions of Turkish citizens; names, surnames, names of relatives, addresses, phone numbers, bank account details and property records, was leaked online. President Erdoğan and the main opposition leader Kılıçdaroğlu are among those whose information was leaked. .

Speaking of Kılıçdaroğlu…

On Thursday the 8th, Fatih Altaylı, a journalist, reported that Kılıçdaroğlu told the executives of his party, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, that he wouldn’t be a candidate for anything again, including presidency or party leadership.

According to surveys, over 60% of the opposition voters want Kılıçdaroğlu to resign from his party. Altaylı said that for now, Kılıçdaroğlu has no intention to quit, and added that this would probably be the case until March next year, when Turkey will hold the local elections for municipalities.

More on the CHP…

On Wednesday the 7th, Ekrem İmamoğlu, CHP’s Istanbul Mayor, said that the party needs a radical change following the election loss. He pointed out that his party has lost three elections in nine years, and added that it cannot expect to change the outcome without changing the way it does things.

Ismail Saymaz, another journalist, said that İmamoğlu told Kılıçdaroğlu that the party should enter the local elections with a new management and strategy and that he wanted to pioneer this change within the party. However, Kılıçdaroğlu reportedly rejected this.

Let’s move onto the ruling bloc…

Recall that the Free Cause Party, or HüdaPar, joined the elections in the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and got four of its members in the parliament. Now, the four members returned to their party, increasing the number of parties in the parliament to sixteen. This reduced the AKP’s seats to 263.

On that note about the ruling party…

The police arrested a sixteen year old high school student for drawing a mustache on Erdoğan’s election poster and writing swear words on it. The judge ruled for his arrest on charges of insulting the president. The boy is one of the thousands of children, as well as adults, who had been charged with insulting the president since Erdoğan assumed power. The opposition heavily criticized this during their election campaign and said that if Kılıçdaroğlu was elected, everyone would be free to criticize him.

Speaking of the elections…

The opposition voters have started a trend where whenever they see someone complain about the state of the economy, they reply with ‘Don’t tell me, I voted for Kılıçdaroğlu’, implying that they did their part in attempting to change it, however the majority of the people seemed content with the way it is.

Since we talked about the elections, recall that Can Atalay was elected as a parliament member from the Workers Party of Turkey in the elections. However, he’s currently in jail for aiding in an attempt to overthrow the government during the Gezi protests. He was supposed to be released from prison, as his parliament member status gave him immunity. He wasn’t released for the parliamentary swearing-in ceremony and people have been speculating that his conviction might not be within the scope of his immunity. The Justice minister, on Wednesday the 7th, announced that Atalay’s immunity didn’t cover crimes against the government and that he wouldn’t be released.

The transport and infrastructure minister said that as of the 1st of July, the government will increase the transit fee in the Bosphorus and Çanakkale straits for international ships. The fee increased from 4 dollars to 4.40 US Dollars per net ton. He said that this move would increase the foreign currency flow to the country.

Some good news on the health sector…

On Tuesday the 6th, the health minister announced that the ministry would establish a hospital for the treatment of rare diseases, gene and cell therapy procedure.The minister especially focused on the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy, commonly known as SMA, a fatal genetic condition that weakens the muscles.

He also mentioned a pilot project called ‘Family Dentist Practice’ where the government will appoint a dentist per ten thousand people. Currently, this project is only in practice in three provinces, but the minister says that the ministry will gradually increase the practice all over the country.

Now some more good news..

The General Director of Forestry said that the rehabilitation of the forests that burned down in the wildfires back in twenty twenty-one has been completed and the vegetation is starting to regrow again.

Onto education…

On Saturday the 17th and Sunday and 18th, many students will take the university entrance exam. Over three million students applied for the exam. Following the earthquakes in southern Turkey, the Higher Education Board has allocated a quota for placement for students affected by the earthquakes. Similarly, the Board reserved a separate quota for women aged thirty four and above who have not graduated from university.

And to close this edition…

On Monday the 12th, The interior minister announced that the narcotic police seized over 500 kilos, or a thousand pounds, of meth in drug busts in Istanbul. In a tweet, he congratulated the teams who conducted the operation and said that he wouldn’t let people who poison the youth breathe under his watch.

And that's it for this week. Another quick question. How are we doing on bias? Ax grinding? We try to be independent and stick to the facts and context with favor and fear of none. How are we doing? So do we seem even a teensy bit biased? Tell us at turkey@rorshok.com

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