Turkey loses cachet as emerging market
Top US economic expert says, "Turkey is not an emerging market."
I don’t think Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan knows Ian Bremmer. He may therefore not have heard the former US Treasury Secretary and Harvard University professor Lawrence Summers when he stated, "The global economy has no sharper or more prescient analyst than Ian Bremmer.’’
But Erdogan may have heard of Eurasia Group, which Bremmer founded and leads. On the other hand, Ali Babacan, who participated at the Davos meetings and who is best described as “if not Turkey’s economic czar, the deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs,” knows both Bremmer and Eurasia Group.
The quickest way to define the Eurasia Group would be to note its reputation as the world’s largest and most prestigious political risk consultancy. Every January, Eurasia Group releases a list of the “Top 10 Risks” for the coming year. Bremmer, speaking on a Wall Street Journal video feed from Davos on Jan. 22, made assessments about Turkey even scarier than being on the “Top 10 Risks” list. He agreed with the Wall Street Journal anchor's prediction that Turkey will be "a big story this year” as one of the “hot spots in the Middle East.” He added, "It wouldn't just be this year; it's probably next [year] as well."
What he said next should be considered drastic for Turkey:
