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Events undermine stock market

Monday’s events have undermined Turkey’s financial markets which on Tuesday lost nearly a tenth of their asset value. Foreign investors own about 70 per cent of the stock market.

Istanbul, today, is rated as fourth richest “billionaire” city in the world after Moscow, New York and London. Istanbul has 34 billionaires with an average net worth of $1.7 billion each.

This is a testament to a remarkable economic and fiscal change only seven years after a currency meltdown, which left Turkey’s economy on the verge of collapse.

Now, Turkey is a deeply divided society between the affluent middle- and upper-class and a vast majority of rural poor.

The alleged plot to overthrow the Islamist-leaning government highlights the role of Turkey’s secular nationalists. The coup inquiry arrests add fears over Turkey’s long-term stability.

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