Turkey’s Political Crackdowns Turn Investor Optimism to Despair
Markets have been on edge more or less since March when Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested, igniting mass protests.
Photographer: Serdar Ozsoy/Getty Images
A constant stream of political crackdowns and lawsuits against opposition figures is snuffing out investors’ hopes of a decisive turnaround in Turkish financial markets.
This week brings a fresh crop of legal proceedings, above all, an Oct. 24 court hearing which could threaten the existence of Turkey’s main opposition party, the CHP. Should judges invalidate a 2023 vote that picked CHP leaders, they could spark a wide-ranging selloff across the country’s stocks and bonds, deepening their underperformance against emerging-market peers.