Turkey Stock Market Tanks – Business Insider
AP
See Also
Here’s What Stocks Do When Interest Rates Are Rising
Here Are 10 Things We Learned About The Economy And Markets In 2013
The Weekend Is Over And Markets Are Mostly Drifting Lower
When the Turkish stock
like it did yesterday, it drags the world down with it.
Of course, it dragged down the iShares MSCI Turkey ETF (which also fell 5%), but it also dragged down the iShares MSCI emerging markets ETF by almost 1%.
This is something to watch, as it appears the fall was caused by factors that aren’t going away any time soon.
Turkey’s tumble was caused by political factors, a battle between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his new opposition, lead by a cleric in self imposed exile named Fethullah Gulen.
Despite the fact that he’s been living in Pennsylvania since 1999, Gulen is the country’s most powerful Muslim cleric. This week, *Gulen’s supporters arrested at least 22 of Erdogan’s high-powered alleged supporters. This includes the children of three of his cabinet ministers, construction magnate Ali Agaoglu, and Suleyman Aslan, the CEO of state-owned lender Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS (HALKB).
Halk Bankasi shares plunged 9% from the beginning of the month as a result.
The problem here is that the Gulen v. Erdogan showdown is just coming to a head now, though it’s been brewing for some time.
The two leaders are from the same Muslim AKP party, which rose to power in 2002. Together, they helped take power away from the army, but since then Gulen has become more moderate. During this summer’s violent protests he was especially critical of the government.
In recent weeks, members of the AKP party have defected out of loyalty to Gulen as well.
Erdogan, for his part, has accused Gulen and his supporters of creating a “parallel state” within Turkey.
So if the Prime Minister means what he said, this battle isn’t over.
*A Gulenist owned paper now puts the number of arrests at 52, and he has denied involvement in the arrests, high-level Turkish officials have said that it’s hard to dispute the cleric’s control of the police force.
Taken from –
Turkey Stock Market Tanks – Business Insider
