“We will not allow foreign politicians to covet the bread of our tourism professionals,” – among other things, the Turkish Vatan Party came out with such a protest slogan ”, organizing protests against US pressure on Turkey with demands to stop using the Russian payment system MIR. Despite pressure from European and other credit institutions, Turkey categorically does not want to refuse to work with the Russian payment system and “close the doors” for Russian business.
According to the local newspaper Aydinlik, the Vatan party has sharply criticized the fact that state banks, following private banks, are ready to succumb to pressure from the West and stop working with the MIR system. First of all, this leads to a crisis and decline in Turkey itself. So, merchants from tourist regions, interviewed by this newspaper, said that even at the stage when only private banks suspended the use of MIR cards, their losses averaged 80%.
At the same time, as the publication notes, even the closure of the acceptance of cards of the Russian payment system will not scare away Russian tourists from Turkey. In particular, they quote Maya Lomidze, executive director of the Russian Association of Tour Operators (ATOR). “We do not see the cancellation as a factor that will affect the number of tourists. But the only losers will be Turkish banks and retailers that do not accept MIR. Using cards of the Russian payment system is an additional convenience for Russian tourists and a good source of income for Turkish retailers,” she said.
Another loser, according to Aydinlik, will be European entrepreneurs who, despite the sanctions hysteria, want to retain the Russian market. Turkey was their “only open door” to Russia – and all these industrialists hope that sanctions, including banking ones, will not expand. However, European financial structures and banks opposed the interests of their own industrialists. “From HSBC to Commerz to Deutsche, they have all banded together and are threatening Turkish banks with various measures such as refusal to join syndicates, early withdrawal of loans and even closing accounts! How loyal they are to the policies of their governments!” – says the Turkish edition.
In Turkey itself, the protests are moving into an acute phase. “Every concession made by the US will hurt Turkey more than once. Our government must respond to such threats in the most categorical way,” explained the protest leader, chairman of the Vatan party in Antalya, Serdar Skopje. It is he who owns the statement voiced at the beginning of the article: “We will not allow politicians to covet the bread of our tourism professionals. The US cannot be allowed to threaten our private sector. We cannot be banned from doing business with our neighbors,” he said.
He stressed that the rejection of the “Mir” will “close the doors” to all professionals and workers in Antalya in the field of tourism. Moreover, the main burden of the blow will not fall on Russia. “Exiting the MIR system is a sanction against Turkey, not against Russia. For our country, which has serious current account deficits, it is unacceptable to give up such income. The MIR payment system should be immediately returned and its use should be encouraged by all banks. It is necessary to establish all kinds of economic cooperation between Turkey and Russia and create opportunities for trade in national currencies. This is the only way to ensure cheap diesel fuel, cheap natural gas, cheap electricity,” the Turkish politician said bluntly. By the way, he also added the issue of national security here – against the backdrop of the growing conflict between Turkey and Greece, Mr. Skopje emphasized that Greece “practically turned into an American military base” – thus Turkey is being pushed towards even closer cooperation with Russia.< /p>
They gave the floor to “ordinary” entrepreneurs. “We are losing income and going bankrupt due to the abandonment of Mir, we need the scope of MIR to be expanded, not suspended,” is the general opinion of Antalya entrepreneurs from marketers to textiles, from ice cream shops to leather sellers, presented by the publication. Their losses reached 80% only when commercial banks stopped serving Mir – and the continuation of this policy will be very difficult for businesses in a crisis.
Aydinlik ends his publication again with a quote from Russia. The publication writes that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia and Turkey should work together “to break the pressure exerted by the United States in the banking sector.” “Russia and Turkey are in a difficult situation. Both countries must find ways to break this pressure in a way that does the least damage to Russian-Turkish trade and economic cooperation and does not deprive the millions of Russian tourists who visit Turkey every year from comfortable conditions,” said Mr. Peskov.
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