Bank Asya shares surge after Turkish election results
Bank Asya
Date posted: June 10, 2015
The AK Party’s failure to secure enough votes to form the government reflects on the stock market, with the politically-seized Bank Asya’s shares observing a 10.75 percent increase at opening on Monday amidst an overall drop in Borsa Istanbul.
Bank Asya had long been subject to political attacks and repeated demands by President Erdoğan to be taken over despite the fact that the publicly traded Islamic lender had one of the best capital adequacy ratios of the sector. Defamatory rumors published by pro-government press have been challenged, but unpunished.
As a result, in late May Turkey’s Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) seized the publicly-traded Islamic bank, placing it under the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), causing mass outrage by financial markets and banking experts.
The controversial move came months after the BDDK took control over its management after a long government-orchestrated campaign against it.
Bank Asya’s shareholders’ lawyers have voiced a strong demand for the return of the management to its rightful owners, and have applied to the courts to take action.
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The Islamic roots of the conflict in Turkey
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Dutch politicians outraged over new “Gulen-List”
Only days after Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Foreign Minister Bert Koenders’ frantic diplomatic efforts to limit Turkish interference in Dutch society, the Turkish state news agency published a new so-called “Gulen list” on Tuesday. The list contains names of organizations in the Netherlands allegedly affiliated with Fethullah Gulen, which are to be boycotted because they are considered enemies of the Turkish State. Politicians in the Netherlands are furious.
The turmoil in Turkey – The terror threat is real and is made worse by Erdogan’s paranoia
Mr. Erdogan’s own Islamist and autocratic tendencies have also compounded the country’s vulnerability. Since an attempted coup last summer, the President has purged thousands of police officers and soldiers, and the resulting talent and resources gap may have damaged Ankara’s counterterror capabilities.
Turkish charity Kimse Yok Mu drills 1,396 wells in Africa
A total of 1,396 wells have been drilled in 13 African countries since Nov. 1, 2014, as part of a project called “Selsebil Water Wells,” which was launched by Turkish charitable organization Kimse Yok Mu in 2011, in cooperation with Fatih University students and Genç-İz Academy Association members.
Smear campaign against Gülen today harsher than in Feb. 28 era
Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who has inspired a worldwide religious network that defends peaceful coexistence through dialogue and education, is currently being targeted in a government-sponsored smear campaign that is reminiscent of, and even harsher than, the Feb. 28, 1997 coup period.
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