Debunking three Turkey stories

TURKEY - In Brief 01 Dec 2014 by Atilla Yesilada

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Three new Turkey stories that erupted into the investors’ agenda need urgent treatment by the usual know-it-all style of the Political Analyst. According to Bloomberg and WSJ, Ankara and Washington DC are close to announcing a deal to establish no-flight and buffer zones in Syria. Pure bunk, I say. The Turkey’s Constitutional Court (CC) may strike down the 10% hurdle for political parties to qualify for the parliament in the national elections. The CC has certainly taken the petition on its docket, but the ramifications of a verdict may be pleasantly unexpected for political stability. Finally, the story of a 64 billion cubic meter per annum (bcm/pa) natural gas pipeline parallel to Blue Stream from Russia to Turkey to service the southern European gas markets needs to be investigated very carefully before accepting at face value. Are Turkey and U.S. close to crafting a common new Syria policy? To bring our readers up to date, let me quote what Bloomberg wrote: “The new proposal would be called an “air-exclusion zone,” a buffer area inside Syria along the Turkish border that would be manned by Turkish troops and protected by U.S. air power, according to three senior U.S. officials who have been briefed on the discussions. The goal would be to give some Syria rebels and civilians protection from both Islamic State and the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Syria through the zone. The idea was last floated in 2012 by the French government, and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was reported to support it at that time”. The first salvo of debunking came immediately from Reuters, which wrote: “Representatives at the...