Turkey's economy strong despite coup bid: Deputy PM

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s economy remains strong despite the July 15 coup attempt, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Friday.

In remarks made at a press conference in Ankara, Kurtulmus said: “The negative impact of this [the July 15 coup attempt] on Turkey’s economy has been minimal. Thank God! Economic indicators have been improving upward since July 22.

“This shows how structurally solid Turkey’s economy is,” he said.

Kurtulmus praised the crisis management of state and government institutions, especially Turkey’s Central Bank and Borsa Istanbul in coping up with challenging volatility in Turkish markets after the coup bid.

“It was very important that the Central Bank managed the process with good public diplomacy. It was also important that Borsa Istanbul did not operate agitatedly in this period,” he said.

Referring to solidarity between public and private institutions in the wake of the coup attempt, the minister said resilience of those institutions was very positive for Turkey’s perception abroad.

“It was admirable that institutions linked to the economy, including Foreign Economic Relations Board, and the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges stood strong against the coup bid from the very first day,” he said.

“The local businessmen’s message to their foreign shareholders to ‘not panic, Turkey is still an appropriate country to invest in, keep your position’ was worthy, too,” he noted.

Kurtulmus warned that not everything was over yet in Turkey since the group behind the coup attempt, the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), would not give up despite facing failure.

“Now, they will try to drive Turkey into the corner through perception operations, especially in the western world,” he said, highlighting the need for a coordinated effort against such operations.

“A pillar of these operations will be to intentionally create negative activities, comments, and speculations about Turkey’s economy abroad. Another pillar will be propaganda on human rights,” he said.

“We need to form a well performing economic diplomacy within the context of public diplomacy during the post-July 15 period,” he added.

Turkey's government has repeatedly said the deadly coup attempt, which martyred at least 246 people and injured nearly 2,200 others, was organized by U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen's followers.

Gulen is also accused of running a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the parallel state.