President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced no new economic measures after Monday’s cabinet meeting in Ankara, using his televised address mainly to discuss foreign policy, a busy diplomatic week and plans for Republic Day on Thursday.
The meeting at the Beştepe presidential complex was the cabinet’s 74th and lasted about three hours, NTV reported. Erdoğan said ministers had discussed domestic politics, the economy, security and foreign policy. Hürriyet reported that the liquidation of troubled investment funds and the "terror-free Türkiye" process, under which the outlawed PKK is to disarm, were among the main agenda items. However, published accounts of the speech from Hürriyet, NTV, TRT Haber and Star contained no new decisions or figures on either issue, or on inflation, wages or housing.
Investors waiting for news on the funds therefore still have to go by the law recently passed by parliament, which allows interim payments of up to 1 million lira. Earlier, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek had set out how refunds and interim payouts are meant to work.
Republic Day and a new park in Ankara
Erdoğan said the 103rd anniversary of the Republic would be celebrated on 29 October together with guests from the Turkic world. He said the Beştepe Millet Ormanı, a "nation’s forest" park in the Beştepe district of Ankara, would be opened to the public on the same day. No details on its size or opening hours were given in the reports.
Ankara will also host the summit of the Organization of Turkic States on Friday, and Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will be in the capital on Wednesday, Erdoğan said. He mentioned a planned visit to South Korea, after which Türkiye will host the COP31 climate summit in Antalya. The COP31 venue in Antalya was 93% complete at the weekend, according to organisers.
Libya deal and Canada
On foreign policy, Erdoğan welcomed the unanimous approval by Libya’s House of Representatives last week of the maritime jurisdiction memorandum the two countries signed on 27 November 2019, calling it a major step for the eastern Mediterranean. He said reactions to the deal, especially from the European Union, had no legitimate basis, and that Türkiye was not trying to "score goals" against anyone in the region and favoured peaceful solutions. "Our only compass is Türkiye’s interest," he said, according to TRT Haber.
He also described Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent official visit as a milestone in 83 years of diplomatic relations. Ties were raised to a strategic partnership, three agreements were signed on defence, air transport and energy, and the two sides agreed to start free trade talks before the end of the year. Bilateral trade of around $3 billion is targeted to rise to $5 billion and then $10 billion.
Erdoğan opened his address by offering condolences for three miners killed in last week’s firedamp explosion in Zonguldak and for an army colonel who died in a military vehicle accident in Ankara on Sunday.
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Sources
- Son dakika… Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan Kabine Toplantısı sonrası açıklamalarda bulunuyor (Hürriyet)
- Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan konuşuyor (TRT Haber)
- Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan’dan önemli açıklamalar (NTV)
- Kabine Toplantısı sona erdi… Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan’dan önemli açıklamalar (Star)
Photo: Ex13 / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
