Author: Semiha Kashani

Turkey’s monthly inflation was seen at 4.84% in June, partly due to the lira’s sharp decline after elections last month, a Reuters poll showed on Monday, but the annual reading was expected to decline slightly to 39.47%. The median estimate of 11 economists for the monthly inflation in June was for a rise of 4.84%, with forecasts ranging between 2.50% and 5.50%. The rise was partly due to the lira’s 23.3% decline since President Tayyip Erdogan won re-election on May 28. Other factors that contributed to the monthly rise was a general rise in prices across the board, including hikes…

The PKK’s recruitment of new members from Europe is under the spotlight again as a man who surrendered reveals that he joined the terrorist group in France and stayed in a Greek camp before being enrolled in their bloody campaign in northern Iraq Confessions of a PKK terrorist who chose to surrender disclosed the terrorist group’s free rein in Europe and how it recruits members thousands of kilometers away from its strongholds in Iraq’s north. The terrorist was among four who decided to quit the group and fled its hideouts in northern Iraq. They surrendered to Turkish security forces on…

Iran’s Real Estate Consultants Association says a significant number of housing developers have migrated to Turkey and Georgia, warning of the impact on the local economy. “The more we boost the property market of foreign countries, the same amount of dollars will leave our country, and this is very dangerous for our country in the future,” Vice President of the Association, Davoud Beiginejad, said on Sunday. The economic situation in Iran has been deteriorating for some time, with high inflation, a weak currency, and a lack of investment opportunities. Housing developers, who rely on the construction industry for their livelihood,…

The Turkish lira slid as much as 3% to a record low against the dollar on Monday, after the central bank took steps to simplify policy, while an official and bankers said the bank had stopped using its reserves to support the lira. The lira weakened as far as 26.05 against the U.S. currency, surpassing last week’s all-time low of 25.74. It trimmed its losses to 25.84 by 0945 GMT. It is down 28% so far this year, largely after the re-election in late May of President Tayyip Erdogan who has since moved to backtrack on his years of unorthodox economic policy…

Almaty, Kazakhstan (16/6 – 35)Yerkin Tatishev, the Chairman and Founder of Kusto Group, has assumed the chairmanship of Almaty Management University (AMU), Kazakhstan’s oldest private university. Tatishev’s appointment, announced last week, marks a significant milestone for AMU as it looks to further enhance its reputation as a leading institution for business education in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region. Tatishev, an accomplished entrepreneur, philanthropist, and passionate advocate for education, brings to his new role at AMU a wealth of experience and a visionary approach. As a key driver of growth and transformation in various industries across the CIS region,…

Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Central Asia (15/6 – 60) On 28 April, President Emomali Rahmon who has ruled Tajikistan since 1992 signed into law a Decree imposing the Procedure for “burying the bodies of terrorists neutralised in the course of a counterterrorism operation”. In the regime’s parlour, this means the bodies of those killed and/or assassinated. The new procedure denies the families of those killed in what the regime calls “anti-terrorism operations” the possibility of burying the dead in a place they want, knowing where the dead are buried, investigating how the death occurred, and burying the dead with the religious or…

Until early 2022, Myrzakhmetov helped run the lobby together with the billionaire son-in-law of the former president. The anti-corruption service in Kazakhstan has detained the former head of a business lobby group close to one of the former president’s billionaire sons-in-law on suspicion of soliciting a bribe reportedly worth almost $30 million. The Anti-Corruption Service said in a statement on May 11 that Ablai Myrzakhmetov was seeking the payment in return for helping a relative of the bribe-giver avoid criminal prosecution. It is unclear in what capacity Myrzakhmetov might have been able to offer this assistance. He is not known to hold…

The table is set for the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast to remain a geopolitical hotspot, as important as it is distant. Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), eastern Tajikistan, is many things. It is the home to the Pamir Mountains, also called “the roof of the world,” whose sharp mountain ranges and deep valleys resemble a lunar landscape. A far-flung frontier, situated in a troubled neighborhood, next to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, GBAO is a geopolitical treasure tethered to exterior interests: the authoritarian central Tajik government in Dushanbe, Chinese economic and military interests, and Russia, which historically frames the…

London, Brussels (27/04 – 33) Kazakh entrepreneur and philanthropist Kenes Rakishev’s acquired company, Oxus Acquisition Corp. and Borealis Foods Inc. announced the signing of a definitive business combination agreement in February this year. This alliance is expected to result in a newly combined company under the name Borealis Foods Inc. Upon the signing, the company will continue to be led by Borealis’ CEO and co-founder Reza Soltanzadeh, and chairman and co-Founder Barthelemy Helg. The boards of directors of Borealis and Oxus have each unanimously approved the proposed $150 million transaction. Borealis is a food technology company that has created ramen…

Tajikistan has been downgraded from ‘repressed’ to ‘closed’ in a new report by the CIVICUS Monitor, a global research collaboration that rates and tracks fundamental freedoms in 197 countries and territories. According to the report, People Power Under Attack 2022, repressive measures taken by the authorities in response to mass protests in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) led to the downgrade. ‘Closed’ is the worst rating a country can receive by the CIVICUS Monitor. In reality, it means that an atmosphere of fear prevails in Tajikistan, where people are routinely imprisoned and attacked for exercising their fundamental rights of freedom of association,…