Turkey crisis: Erdogan vows to ...

Turkey’s president fired a new salvo in the growing war of words with the United States on Tuesday, saying Ankara will boycott all American-made electronic products. Showing no signs of backing down in the standoff, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would stop procuring US-made iPhones and buy Korean Samsung or Turkish-made Vestel products instead. “If they have the iPhone, there is Samsung elsewhere. We have Vestel.” It was unclear how intended to enforce the boycott. Over the last few days, Turkey has seen a significant devaluation of its currency the lira, which has lost more than 45 percent of its value this year. The lira pulled back on Tuesday from a record low hit a day earlier, helped by the central bank’s new liquidity measures and news of a planned conference call in which the finance minister will seek to reassure investors. But analysts have raised concerns of a wider contagion rippling through global markets. On Tuesday, the Indian rupee hit a record low as a result of the economic issues in Turkey. Analysts say the financial crisis has been a long time coming and reflects Turkey’s refusal to raise interest rates to curb double-digit inflation and cool an overheated economy. Disputes with NATO ally the US have also contributed to the lira’s plunge. “Unfortunately I think Erdogan is the extreme example of a policy-maker who is totally deluded,” Aly-Khan Satchu, CEO Rich Management, told Al Jazeera. “It’s a losing battle. He is going to have to raise interest rates to bring the situation under control,” he added. “He’s making it much worse.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the events are a sign the dollar is becoming obsolete as the global trade currency. “I’m confident that the grave abuse of the role of the US dollar as a global reserve currency will result over time in the weakening and demise of its role,” Lavror said at a news conference in the Turkish capital Ankara. Lavrov added that Russia is aiming towards using national currencies to settle bilateral trade deals with Turkey and other countries. Erdogan, rejecting economic fundamentals as the cause of lira weakness, said Turkey was the target of an economic war and has made repeated calls on Turks to sell their dollars and euros to shore up the national currency. He also urged manufacturers not to rush to buy dollars..... The two NATO allies have been at odds over several issues including, diverging interests in Syria, Ankara’s plans to buy Russian defence systems and, most recently, Brunson’s case. He had been in jail for almost 20 months when a court in July ordered him moved to house arrest. Since then, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have demanded his immediate release. Ankara says the decision is up to the courts. On Monday, US National Security Adviser John Bolton met Turkish ambassador Serdar Kilic at the White House to discuss relations. Worryingly, the lira’s weakness is starting to affect the rest of the world as well. Other than India’s rupee, currencies from Argentina and South Africa fell on Monday.