The designers of this beautiful ‘slim lady’ have taken inspiration from the Art-Deco period, creating a very stylish and elegant VIP Tour Boat to cruise the Bosphorus strait in Turkey.
I found more cool photos of this yacht here:
via Baris Yurek designed 65m yacht Istanbul – Superyachts News, Luxury Yachts, Charter & Yachts for Sale..
Breaking….S&P downgrades Turkey’s outlook.
Just in from S&P:
‘Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services today revised the outlook on Turkey’s long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings to stable, from positive. At the same time, we affirmed our ‘BB/B’ foreign currency and ‘BBB-/A-3′ local currency long- and short-term sovereign credit ratings on Turkey. We also affirmed the Turkey long- and short-term national scale ratings at ‘trAA+/trA-1′. The ’3′ recovery rating and ‘BBB–’ transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment remain unchanged.
Less-buoyant external demand and worsening terms of trade (the price of exports compared to imports) have, in our view, made economic rebalancing more difficult, and have increased the risks to Turkey’s creditworthiness given its high external debt and the state budget’s reliance on indirect tax revenues. We have revised the outlook on Turkey’s long-term sovereign credit ratings to stable from positive, reflecting our view that the ratings are likely to remain at the current level during the next 12 months.’
Ah yes, that’ll be those Erdaganomics again, then. You read it here first.
via Breaking….S&P downgrades Turkey’s outlook. | A diary of deception and distortion.
The Anatolian Tigers — a new breed of pious businessmen who have risen from the grassroots to fire Turkey’s economic and political transformation — are targeting an entry into the high-technology big league.
“We have tasted considerable international success in the areas of manufacturing and trade. Our next challenge is to develop an expertise in select areas such as computer software, pharmaceuticals and new energy,” says Sadan Yavuz, a finance specialist, with a Canadian higher education background.
Mr. Yavuz is one among several professionals with business exposure abroad in the ranks of the Anatolian Tigers who have achieved spectacular business success without sacrificing their core religious values.
Emerging out of Anatolia — Turkey’s Asiatic part, long stereotyped as “backward” — these businessmen, mostly engaged in small and medium enterprises — have turned to their unique and inclusive version of Sufi Islam to achieve meteoric business success. A report by the European Stability Initiative has called the new Anatolian business class “Islamic Calvinists” because of the similarity of their work ethic and values with the mentality of the Calvinist Burghers, the pioneers of early capitalism in Europe.
The Anatolian Tigers have been deeply influenced by the writings of Said Nursi, who shepherded the Nur (light) movement in the region.
Driving force
Nursi’s advocacy of embracing Western science and technology as well as engagement with “competing paradigms”, has had a deep impact on his followers in Central Anatolia. In the tradition of Nursi, Fethullah Gulen has given a clear contemporary direction to the Anatolian middle class. The Gulen movement’s message of inclusivity, inter-faith engagement, entrepreneurship, education and outreach has had a decisive influence in directing the entrepreneurial impulses of the Anatolian Tigers.
As they grew, benefiting initially from the early phase of globalisation initiated in the eighties under the stewardship of Turgut Ozal, a former Prime Minister and President, the Anatolian Tigers have become part of a new ecosystem that is steadily overwhelming Turkey’s established order.
The Anatolian businessmen have ploughed their considerable resources to the cause of the Gulen movement, which, in step with its focus on education, has opened quality schools imparting modern education in more than 140 countries. The Gulen movement’s well acknowledged educational contributions abroad, in turn, have helped soften the ground for the entry of Anatolian businesses in many of these countries. “There is no direct link but our association with the Gulen movement quite often helps to do business in new areas such as Africa, Central Asia and the Balkans,” says Fatih Kutlutas, another Anatolian Tiger. The top floors of many of the buildings affiliated with the Gulen movement usually have a few “guest rooms”, which travellers can usually access.
Organisations such as ISGED — a business-development establishment — and the 20,000-member TUSKON are also helping Turkish small and medium enterprises to break into markets abroad. Addressing a TUSKON gathering recently, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “These businessmen [affiliated to TUSKON] conquer hearts in five continents by conducting successful projects and contributing to education in these countries.”
With a fast developing support infrastructure, Anatolian businessmen are quietly confident of further success. “We aim to export $150 billion in 2012 and $500 billion by 2023,” says Mehmet Buyukeksi, president of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM).
The Anatolian Tigers and the Gulen movement have staunchly supported the Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by Mr. Erdogan, and President Abdullah Gul, who hails from Kayseri, Central Anatolia’s powerful industrial hub.
The triumvirate — the Anatolian Tigers, the Gulen Movement and the AKP — have been pioneers of a silent democratic revolution, which appears set to peacefully marginalise Turkey’s military-led old guard.
via The Hindu : News / International : Anatolian Tigers drive Turkey’s silent revolution.
By Mike Eckel, Contributor / April 28, 2012
The global economy remains deep in crisis and Europe and the United States are doing little to resolve its core causes, Deputy Turkish Prime Minister Ali Babacan warned Friday.
Mr. Babacan, a former foreign minister and Turkey’s point-man for economic policy, said neither the US nor the eurozone countries have yet to deal with the underlying causes of the global economic slowdown: a weak financial sector, weak corporate balance sheets, risky public financial positions.
Speaking at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Babacan warned that this year will be a year of reckoning for the European Union, and he pointed to the recent collapse of the Dutch government over the budget austerity measures as a harbinger for Europe’s coming fiscal battles.
“2012 will be test year for European countries,” he said. “2013 will be test year for American economy. After the elections [the new administration] will find very difficult decisions on the table right away. There has to be serious fiscal adjustment and a medium term plan to deal with the deficit. So far, there is no credible plan to deal with deficit.”
Babacan said developed countries need to undertake serious structural changes including reforming social security and labor markets: “It is absolutely necessary for serious reforms, especially in many European countries, absolutely necessary and urgent.”
Babacan is a founding member of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party and considered a leading member of the “Neo-Ottomanism” movement, moving Turkey’s foreign policy away from a predominantly Western focus to integration and activism in its immediate neighborhood – the territories of the former Ottoman Empire.
Babacan contrasted the Western economic turmoil, with Turkey’s booming economy which he said grew at 9.2 percent growth rate in 2010, and 8.5 percent in 2011.
“We entered this crisis with a strong banking system and strong public financial structure. During the crisis when many countries were asking for fiscal stimulus programs.… We followed a very different route. We did just the opposite. We announced fiscal consolidation program. And we overperformed,” he said.
He said Turkey’s economy was far more open than many European countries, which had made Turkish companies more dynamic and more competitive in global markets. And he argued that Turkish growth was more sustainable because he said it didn’t come on the back of government spending, but rather private sector growth.
In the coming years, he said, “We will have lower growth – though better than everywhere else in Europe – but slower than before. Growth is high, but it’s also sustainable growth.”
“Tight fiscal policies will continue, in good days or in bad days,” he said, “but we don’t believe in economic growth through public spending.”
Islam, democracy, and capitalism
Turkey has shown how Islam and democracy and capitalism can cooexist peacefully, Babacan said.
“When people observe a functioning example, people are more encouraged to ask for more in their own countries,” he said. “We have been talking with leaders: Change is coming, you can no longer have a closed regime with an open society – satellites, social media, the Internet – you have this kind, this kind of society moving forward and you are running this closed regime, this is not sustainable, this cannot continue.”
“We have advised these leaders to lead this change, or you will be pushed by change anyway,” he said.
Babacan addressed several of the long-running disputes in the region, such as the Israeli-Palestinian impasse, the status of the split island of Cyprus, and the violence in neighboring Syria. He said Turkey was strongly supportive of the six-point peace plan pushed by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, but he said Turkey was strongly against any sort of military intervention or sending weapons to the embattled Syrian opposition forces.
He also said the Syrian opposition is coalescing into a viable alternative to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“We need to see visible, verifiable, and indisputable change in the country,” he said. “The primary responsibility to end the violence will rest with the Syrian regime.”
via Growing like gangbusters, Turkey says Western economies need ‘serious reforms’ – CSMonitor.com.
U.S. billionaire businessman Donald Trump stopped off at Shannon Airport this week on his way to Turkey to open his newest development, writes Pat Flynn.
The property magnate and developer’s $100m (€75m) private Boeing 757 jet made a one-hour refuelling stop at the mid west airport while en route from New York to Istanbul.
Trump was in the city to open a $400m (€302) twin-tower complex. ‘Trump Towers Istanbul’ comprises two skyscrapers each around 150 meters (492 feet) high and located in the city’s central Mecidiyekoy district.
The development includes 204 apartments on sale for as much as $6m (€4.5m) as well as 43,000 square meters (463,000 square feet) of offices and stores.
About 75 percent of residences at Trump Towers have already been sold for sums ranging from $600,000, €450,000) to $6m (€4.5m).
Trump, who is Chairman and President of Trump Hotel Collection, said he plans to invest in hotels in Turkey “as soon as possible” which means he is likely to be a more regular visitor to Shannon.
Trump is no stranger to Shannon however this was the first time that he visited the mid west in the jet he purchased from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen last year.
The 21-year-old Boeing 757-200 series jet has been fitted out with a private bedroom with a huge, flat-screen TV and a work desk.
The private bathroom features a circular shower and gold plated sink and taps. The ceilings of the jet are done in suede while the sides of the aircraft are finished in wood paneling.
Even the seat-belt buckles are plated in 24-carat gold. The plane can accommodate 43 people is is festooned throughout with the Trump name and family crest.
Trump’s previous luxury jet, a Boeing 727, was also a regular visit to Shannon.
After leaving Istanbul yesterday (Sunday), Trump travelled to Aberdeen in Scotland where he has already halted work on his £1bn (€1.2bn) luxury golf resort over plans to build an offshore wind farm nearby.
Trump is expected to appear before a Scottish Parliament committee later this week, as part of an inquiry into green energy.
Other famous and regular visitors to Shannon are John Travolta, who flies his own Boeing 707 jet, and more recently, film director Stephen Spielberg who owns a Boeing 737-700 aircraft.
via Donal Trump Stops Off At Shannon.
International DJ, frequent flyer extraordinaire and Jaunted contributor Max Graham drops his thoughts on hanging out in Turkish Airlines’ flagship lounge at Istanbul-Atatürk International Airport recently:
Flying from Hong Kong to London this past month, I stayed loyal to Star Alliance and chose to fly Turkish Airlines, which meant a stop in Istanbul and a visit to their large flagship lounge. Right away I was very impressed with the entry system. It goes like this: you scan your boarding pass and, if you’re allowed in, turnstile-like doors automatically open. This eliminates the need to wait in line while someone manually checks your boarding pass and keys in your frequent flyer number. It’s the future!
Gallery: Turkish Airlines Lounge at Istanbul Atatürk Airport
The lounge itself is quite spacious and includes an impressive selection of food options, including a chef’s station that makes omelettes as if it’s in a hotel and not in an airport. There’s plenty of local and international options for food as well as a staffed coffee/tea bar, which was quite lovely.
An office area has plenty iMacs, a kids section has Playstations and a stately library includes a pool table. The lounge’s seating areas are quite large on their own, with the bonus of secret quieter areas if you don’t plop down in the first comfortable seat you find.
What I Liked:
· Food options were extensive, both local and international.
· Decor is really cool with the curved ceilings and traditional Turkish inspiration.
· Bathroom was very nice and clean, with attention to detail.
· The Turkish coffee station is excellent with its fresh juice, teas and lots of options.
What I Didn’t Like:
· It’s really just one thing. The internet access details are not offered at the front, but rather at the back where an attendant behind a desk gives you a small bit of paper with the info on it. It’s a waste of paper and annoying to be sent back and forth.
Overall I give it a 9 out of 10. The Turkish Airlines flagship lounge is definitely a sweet two-hour interval between flights.
About the Author: As an international best-selling DJ and a million-mile-plus frequent flyer (and maker of awesome iPhone videos), Max Graham is “either in the studio or on a plane.” He spends more nights in hotels than in his own bed and arguably has one of the best jobs in the world. You can always follow his more immediate travel commentary on Twitter and his music and tour dates at his official website.
[Photos: Max Graham for Jaunted]
via Inside the Turkish Airlines Flagship Lounge at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport || Jaunted.
