World press on debates provoked by Republic Day in Ankara (November 3, 2012)

Hurriyet published an article by Sedat Ergin devoted to the debate that erupted over the Republic Day celebrations. The article was entitled 'Will President Erdoğan instruct the governor?'
 "The prime minister proved in an obvious and harsh manner that if needs be he would not even refrain from taking President Abdullah Gül on publicly" Ergin writes.

 "This debate has also dramatically confirmed that Erdoğan is interpreting the limits of powers granted to the president in the current constitution very narrowly. The exchange of messages we have witnessed at the top of the state is in a way the sign of what kind of powerlessness awaits Erdoğan in the high-ceilinged office of the Çankaya Presidential Mansion in 2014 if he ascends there without changing the constitution. In this event, even if Erdoğan pushes Gül out of the political equation and makes a friend of his who would follow his advice sit in the seat of the prime ministry, this political achievement, in the final analysis, would not change the fact that powers would still be under the prime minister’s responsibility."

 "If Erdoğan is a leader who stands behind his words, then when he is elected president he will be obliged not to exceed his jurisdiction, the boundaries of which he has created himself. In this context, for example, he would be obliged not to phone the Ankara Governor for the removal of police barricades during a demonstration in Ankara."

 Hurriyet also published an article by Guven Sak headlined "Turkey’s economic growth stuck between Hamas and PKK?" "I was at a meeting with a group of officials from the European Investment Bank (EIB) recently. The EIB is more and more interested in supporting infrastructure projects in Turkey. I told them about how Turkey’s inadequate transportation and logistics infrastructure prevent our inland regions from joining the European Customs Union, thus foregoing all the benefits of connectivity that comes with it. We went over the relevant sectors for the European integration process. Everything was going well until a little caveat at the end. “Of course,” I was told, “if Turkish membership of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is suspended in February 2013, the EIB will not be able to extend any more loans and grants in Turkey.” As it turned out, there was a loaded story behind this."
 "First, Turkey has not yet put together an action plan of its own to combat money laundering. Second, Turkey could not enact an effective legal framework to combat terrorist financing. Both of these processes have been in the works for about ten years now. One of the difficulties seems to be that Turkey has not yet found a definition of terrorism that includes the PKK, while excluding Hamas. If Turkey sticks to this ideological stance and gets kicked out of the FATF, it will also be automatically excluded from dealing with financial institutions like the European Investment Bank. Thinking of the potential role of EIB in upgrading Turkey’s long forgotten infrastructure bottlenecks, this is certainly bad for Turkey’s long term economic growth prospects.

 "We have to choose between business and ideology. This is a good litmus test if there ever was one; Turkey has a lot to lose from being excluded, more than we can imagine." Sak writes.