The day lights went out in Turkey

TURKEY - In Brief 31 Oct 2016 by Atilla Yesilada

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I honestly don’t know how important the erosion of democratic standards in a country is for my audience. If it isn’t don’t read this Market Update, or read it to confirm your conviction that Erdogan is gradually but irreversibly consolidating power in Turkey. But if democratic norms do play a role in your investment decisions, you should seriously start worrying about Turkey. The latest assault on the democracy commenced on Friday with the passage of State of Emergency Decree Nr 676 which authorized Erdogan to appoint all university presidents from lists “suggested” by Higher Education Council (previously a short list was elected from which the president made an appointment) and limited the rights of convicts. 15 more media outlets mostly affiliated with PKK or the Kurdish Rights Movement were also shuttered. On Monday, a prosecutor ordered the detention of the editor of chief of Cumhuriyet Newspaper, as well as 12 of its columnists and board members on charges of “aiding and abetting the Gulenist terror organization without being members”. To refresh memories, Cumhuriyet is one of the two leading secularist dailies of Turkey, the other being Sozcu, which also claims being investigated on similar charges. Cumhuriyet is by no means a pro-Gulen outfit, and its former and now deceased editor in chief had been arrested in the now infamous Ergenekon coup witch hunts years ago, while one of its leading columnists served 5 years in jail on the same charges. He is currently a CHP MP. I suspect soon an administrator might be appointed to run the newspaper, which would entirely change its coverage to a pro-government orientation. As hard as I try, it is difficult to see this rai...