Ahlam Albashir, a Syrian woman who carried out Sunday’s deadly terrorist attack on Istiklal Street in Istanbul, came to the city four months ago disguised as a textile worker, the security sources said yesterday. The government said the attack was carried out by the YPG/PYD/PKK terrorist organization. Albashir and the other suspect avoided digital communication in order not to get caught and they worked at a textile workshop for four months, according to the sources. During police interrogation following her arrest, Albashir admitted that she was trained as a special intelligence agent by the PKK/PYD/YPG and received instructions from Ayn al-Arab in northern Syria, where the terrorist organization has its Syrian headquarters, the sources added.
The adverse impact of the global recession, which is being felt in Europe and the U.S., will soon reflect more on Turkey, according to Foreign Economic Relations (DEIK) President Nail Olpak. Speaking in an exclusive interview with daily DUNYA, Olpak said ‘bolder’ actions should be taken in foreign trade to minimize the impacts of the recession. The DEIK President also stated that Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with countries such as Pakistan and Azerbaijan or extended trade agreements may develop new opportunities. Africa and the Asia-Pacific regions can be focused on particularly to this end.
An undisclosed meeting by the heads of the CIA and the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service was held in Ankara at the request of the U.S., the Kremlin said yesterday. “Such negotiations really took place. It was the initiative of the American side,” Russian state news agency TASS cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. While Peskov didn’t disclose the agenda of the meeting, he confirmed the meeting between CIA Director Bill Burns and his Russian counterpart Sergey Naryshkin in Ankara. Earlier, an official from the White House National Security Council, who asked to remain anonymous, also said that communication channels with Russia are open, especially regarding managing risk, in particular regarsing the risk of a nuclear attack and risks to strategic stability.
Turkey’s benchmark stock index ended yesterday at 4,570.20 points, hitting another all-time high. Borsa Istanbul’s BIST 100 index earned 2.57% or 114.67 points from the previous close with a daily trading volume of TRY 92.4bn. The uncertainty about the Federal Reserve’s end of rate hikes and the negative indices in the cryptocurrency markets have made pricing difficult on the global market, while the domestic market continues to positively differentiate, according to analysts. They said investors have focused on the news flow from the G-20 Summit and verbal directions of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank officials. Analysts also stated that 4,350-4,400 points will be the support level and 4,600 points will be the resistance level for the BIST 100 index, in technical terms.
DAILY AGENDA
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped by 0.7 percentage points to 10.0% in the third quarter, compared to the previous quarter, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
The producer price index of agricultural products (Agriculture-PPI) jumped 163.32% in October, year-over-year, according to TurkStat. The index surged by 4.59% on a monthly basis.
The Treasury and Finance Ministry will announce the central government budget balance figures for October (11.00 a.m.).
Meanwhile…
>> Turkey and Indonesia signed five agreements in the fields of defense, research, forestry, environment, and development in Bali before the G-20 Summit.
>> Turkey’s e-commerce volume jumped 116% to TRY 348bn in January-June, compared to the same period of the previous year, according to the data from the Trade Ministry’s Electronic Commerce Information System (ETBIS).
>> Cow’s milk production dropped by 4.4% to 750,461 tons in September, compared to the same month last year, according to TurkStat.
>> Turkey has used EUR 9.2bn in European Union funding for nearly 900 large-scaled projects since 2002, according to Mehmet Kasim Gulpinar, Chairman of the Parliament’s EU Harmonization Committee.
>> The interest rate charged for commercial loans dropped by 180 basis points to 16.16% while the figure rose to 21.56% for housing loans in the week ending on November 4, compared to the previous week, according to the Central Bank. The interest rate charged for consumer loans remained unchanged in this period.
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