Episode 73
United States’ Navy Warships in the Marmara Coast & more– 22nd Aug 2023
US warships, opposition journalist arrested, returning to conventional economic policies, Dutch ambassador to swim across the strait, liturgy at Sumela monastery, and so much more!
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Transcript
Last week, two United States’ Navy warships visited the Marmara coast, the strategic region that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea. This raised questions because, with the war in Ukraine, the Black Sea region is going through a very tense period. The presence of the US alone raises the tension. The US ambassador stated that the ships’ recent visit was a “great example of cooperation and coordination between Turkey and the USA.” However, the unfortunate timing raised public concern.
Lately, there has been a lot of news about violence against women, murder, robberies, and crime, in general, circulating on social media. Whenever such news makes headlines, the ruling bloc always suggests bringing back the death penalty.
In his most recent column, Barış Terkoğlu, a journalist, wrote that the ruling bloc always brings up the death penalty as a deterrent for such violent crimes, however, when it comes to actual lawmaking, the government does the opposite of what it says. He pointed out that since the pandemic, the government let out thousands of criminals convicted of violent crimes on remission before they completed even a quarter of their sentences. He also wrote that while murderers, drug dealers, and abusers always get lucky with new regulations, journalists and political offenders never seem to hit the jackpot with remission.
Most recently, the government introduced a regulation that prevents ex-cons that were released from prison as part of the covid-19 precautions to return to prison.
Speaking of imprisoned journalists…
ing his parole. Back in early:He also couldn’t benefit from the new regulation that kept convicts who were released from being incarcerated again. Pehlivan said that the government thinks he is more dangerous than a murderer, and he has to be locked up, and added that he’ll continue to do journalism in prison.
Now some good news on the economy…
Back in:With this scheme the government aimed to encourage investors to exchange foreign currency for Turkish Lira, creating demand for it in the market. Theoretically, it did bring more Turkish Liras onto the market, but it also cost the government a lot of money because the US Dollar didn’t lose any value as they hoped and it became too expensive for them. They had to pay the difference in currency as well as the interest earnings.
Now, the central bank revealed that it’ll start phasing out this scheme. It will reportedly encourage investors to turn their investment accounts into regular Lira accounts and discourage them from renewing their accounts.
While we’re talking about the economy…
The soaring inflation is affecting the daily life of everyone and most salaries aren’t enough to get by. The public servant union is protesting against the salary increase the government proposed for the next year. The executive proposed a 25% increase, however, the amount is 8% less than the central bank’s inflation forecast for next year. The union’s protest came as a surprise, as it’s very close to the government
How about international relations?
On Sunday the 20th, President Erdoğan met with the Hungarian President. The two agreed to increase bilateral relations and also talked about Turkey’s EU membership.
On a different note…
On Sunday the 20th, Turkey held the 35th Bosphorus Cross-continental Swimming race in Istanbul. More than two thousand swimmers participated in the competition. One of them was the Dutch ambassador to Turkey. He said that he joined the competition to raise awareness of a campaign organized for the victims of the Maraş earthquakes that devastated southern Turkey earlier this year. He said that the Netherlands raised over 150 million US Dollars for the victims, but that the Dutch Embassy also wanted to do something.
Moving on to some cultural news…
On Tuesday the 15th, the Fener Greek Patriarchate led a mass to commemorate the assumption of Mary at the Sumela Monastery in the city of Trabzon.
l mass at the monastery since:Earlier this summer, Elon Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a cage fight. Zuckerberg accepted. There have been some suggestions about where to hold the fight, for example, the Italian government suggested the two hold the fight at the historical Colosseum in Rome. The most recent suggestion came from Mustafa Varank, Turkey’s former minister of industry and technology. On Twitter, he shared a picture of two people oil wrestling, the national sport of the country, and invited Musk and Zuckerberg to have the fight at Er Meydanı, where the country holds the annual oil wrestling tournaments.
And to wrap up this edition, some news on education…
Recall that earlier this summer, the Higher Education Board allocated a quota for university placement for women aged thirty-four and above who have not graduated. Well, on Saturday the 19th, the Board announced the placement results, which caused quite a stir. Thanks to this quota, many people who scored the bare minimum required got placed in the most prestigious universities. For example, someone who got 160 points was placed in a major that normally accepted students who got at least 510 points, the highest score available.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!
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