Syrian Financial Capital's Loss Is Turkey's Gain

Syrian refugee children in refugee camp in Turkey

Deborah Amos     NPR

There is a brain drain in Syria, an exodus of the skilled and the educated as the Syrian revolt grinds into a third year.

The health care system is one casualty, as hospitals and clinics are shelled and doctors flee the country.

The business community is another — particularly in Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once the country's industrial and financial hub.

As Aleppo was dragged into the war, many in the business community fled to southern Turkey, less than a two-hour drive away. Gaziantep, a Turkish border town, has become a new hub for Syrian businessmen.

At the recent opening of a new restaurant in Gaziantep, the excitement among Syrian exiles was all about the white creamy sauce served with the spicy chicken.

"Garlic, very important with chicken," insisted customer Ahmad Showah, who has longed for Syrian cuisine since he came to Turkey seven months ago. For him, the traditional Syrian sauce was part nostalgia, part identity — a powerful reminder of home.

"Garlic, eggs, oil and spices," said restaurant owner Mohamad Serjeh, listing the ingredients of Syria's "special" sauce as he piled plates with crispy chicken. Serjeh brought his stainless steel chicken roasters from his ruined shop in Aleppo and opened the first Syrian restaurant in this Turkish border town.

Turkey to buy its first heavy-lift army copters

Ümit ENGINSOY    Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review

Turkey has inked a deal with the US to buy six CH-4 helicopters, or Chinooks, for $400 million. The Turkish party will make some modifications on copters.

Turkey has signed a government-to-government deal with the United States to buy six Boeing-made CH-47 heavy-lift military transport helicopters, the first such weapons in its inventory, a senior procurement official said over the weekend.

The deal is worth up to $400 million, the official said.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, or DSCA, the Pentagon’s body coordinating weapons sales, notified the U.S. Congress of a potential sale of a total of 14 CH-47F heavy-lift helicopters for $1.2 billion in December 2009. Congress gave permission for the sale later that month.

Because of financial constraints, however, the Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry, or SSM, Turkey’s procurement agency, later wanted to buy only six CH-47Fs, five for the Army and one for the Special Forces Command, leaving a decision on the remaining eight platforms for the future. Contract negotiations between the SSM, the U.S. government and Boeing were launched last year.

Confident Turkey plans to raise arms expenses to historic high

Ümit ENGINSOY     Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review

While many European countries are trying to cut their expenditures in a bid to decrease their public debt, Turkey’s defense spending is about to reach an all-time record of $5 billion in 2011. ‘Thank God, the general economic situation of the country is fine,’ a senior procurement official tells the Hürriyet Daily News.

Turkey will spend close to $5 billion for defense procurement this year, the highest in the country’s history, a senior procurement official said on the weekend.

“Some major spending items have just started or are starting now, including those for the purchase of [around 100] Joint Strike Fighter jet aircraft [JFSs], submarines and utility helicopters,” said the official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity. “As a result, the arms spending is jumping, approaching $5 billion this year. Thank God, the general economic situation of the country is fine.”

In recent years Turkey has spent just over $4 billion a year on defense procurement.

Nouriel Roubini’s Uneducated Comments About the Turkish Economy

 Insider Monkey

Nouriel Roubini has been consistently bearish throughout the recovery. Roubini’s popularity eroded as his bearish predictions about the U.S.  economy turned out wrong. Recently Nouriel Roubini was the guest on Turkey’s Bloomberg HT television and talked about the Turkish economy. Last week the Turkish Institute of Statistics announced that Turkey’s 2011 Q1 growth rate was 11%. This is even higher than China’s cooked growth rates. So Roubini’s recommendation to Turkey was to raise interest rates and control capital flows to cool down the economy. Clearly Roubini is uneducated about the Turkish economy and the figures released by the Statistics Institute.  Here is why Roubini is wrong:

Turkey's New AKP Government: Will It Move Towards a Liberal or Illiberal Democracy?

 Joshua W. WALKER** & Lenore G.MARTIN*      The Huffington Post

The Turkish election results are in with few surprises but with major questions as to Turkey's political directions. The Justice and Development Party (AKP), with its conservative-Muslim roots, claims the most victory, taking over half of the votes and improving three straight elections in a row, though it will lose seats in the new parliament. The Republican People's Party (CHP), with its secular, Kemalist legacy, improved on its last showing, but gained only a quarter of the vote. The ultranationalist National Movement Party (MHP) survived last-minute scandals to enter parliament with 13% of the vote. Even the Kurdish party managed to take seats in parliament with its independent candidates garnering 6% of the votes. What do the results betoken for the self-proclaimed model democracy in the Middle East? With these election results Turkey now faces a political crossroads. The new government of the AKP can either take Turkey down the road to constitutional reform in a more liberal democratic direction or revert to some of its campaign rhetoric that promoted illiberal tendencies that will only increase Turkey's societal divisions and repress fundamental political freedoms.