Azerbaijan maintains friendly and partner relations with Turkey, Georgia, Russia and Iran. It has problems only with Armenia, which occupied 20% of Azerbaijani lands and holds them under occupation for over 20 years. In 1988, the Armenians of Karabakh voted to secede and join Armenia. This, along with mutual massacres in Azerbaijan and Armenia resulted … Continue reading
By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya Tectonic geopolitical shifts are taking place in Eurasia. The Venetian merchant Marco Polo and the Moroccan scholar Ibn Battuta, both great travelers of their days, would be thoroughly impressed with the trade networks that are developing. The Eurasia of today is developing into a vast network of superhighways, railroad connections, mammoth ports, … Continue reading
By Stratfor Global Intelligence Turkey’s relationship with Russia is changing significantly. A domestic economic crisis, low energy prices and European energy diversification efforts have weakened Russia. Moscow is also heavily involved in the ongoing crisis in Ukraine — right across the Black Sea from Turkey. Russia’s weakened position and the trouble in Ukraine have made Turkey’s … Continue reading
Russia has proposed to Indonesia to use their national currencies for trade settlements, said Denis Manturov, Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade, Russian media reports, just days after Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev made the same offer to Vietnam. “We [Russia] expect active support in the transition to the use of national currencies in our trade relations with [a number of countries] and Indonesia, too,” … Continue reading
Turkey is pushing for Iran to switch to use local currencies in bilateral trade and ditch the euro and the U.S. dollar in the latest effort amongst emerging market nations to further de-dollarization. According to Bloomberg, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani in Tehran to lobby for dropping euros and … Continue reading
By Etienne Lepers While Turkey – with its ceaselessly falling currency – is struggling with the same global forces as other emerging markets, an internal struggle between President Erdoğan, Central Bank Govenor Erdem and deputy PM for the economy Ali Babacan is undermining Turkish economic vitality. Interest and currency rates have become subject to inter-departmental feuding generating significant financial uncertainty. Over the … Continue reading
As Russia begins to build a pipeline through Macedonia that could form the basis of a revised South Stream route, the Hungarian President is in talks with Erdogan over financing this enormous project. By Andrew Korybko, Sputnik News While many in the Balkans were lamenting the cancellation of the South Stream project last December, Russia was hard at work … Continue reading
By Zacks Equity Research iShares MSCI Turkey ETF (TUR) – the sole ETF focusing on Turkey – saw a terrible start to the year and is in fact the worst performing ETF in the emerging equities space this year. TUR has plunged roughly 17% this year as against flat returns by the broad emerging market funds … Continue reading
With Moscow declaring in the coming years that it will divert its gas supplies away from Ukraine and through Turkey to supply Europe, Ankara said it is a step closer to its goal of being a major gas hub. But critics point out Turkey still has many hurdles to overcome. By Dorian Jones The deepening crisis … Continue reading
By Andrew Korybko, Sputnik News Turkey’s flirtation with purchasing non-NATO-compatible Chinese missiles to complement its planned air defense system indicates that Ankara may be preparing for a grander non-Western policy pivot in the future. As it stands, Turkey is officially deliberating between purchasing Chinese, American, or French missiles for its air defense system, but the fact that military products … Continue reading