Istanbul's Economic Tension

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But the latest political problems show how Turkey's old secular establishment, a wealthy class rooted in western coastal cities, is not ready to surrender its prerogatives yet. It is backing the court challenge to the AKP, whose electoral base, incidentally, is central Anatolia. (Turkey's President, Abdullah Gul, is from Kayseri.) "The reason the economy was booming in recent years," says Raymond James analyst Avci, "was that there was finally political stability with a single-party government. That is now in jeopardy, which is worrying." And yet businessmen like Serdar Bilgili remain upbeat. The Istanbul entrepreneur just invested in a $75 million project to build a new W Hotel in the trendiest part of Istanbul. "We are very positive in the long term," he says. "The outlook might seem unclear now, but financial markets and bank reserves are strong, and we are confident in the potential of Turkey to grow." The fact that he is not alone in that view is, ultimately, Turkey's real headline news.