21.10.2007, 04:49
Zitat:A row between Turkey and its most powerful ally the United States over Ankara's plans to send troops into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels could dent much-needed foreign investment and hit the lira hard.
The high-yielding lira has fallen 3.3 percent this week against the dollar from six-year highs due to the Iraq issue, but economists say it could drop much more if Turkey defies Washington and sends its forces across the border.
Turkey lured a record $20.1 billion (9.81 billion pounds) FDI last year, and hopes to attract a similar amount this year.
Investors know an incursion into northern Iraq would further test relations with Washington, already strained after a U.S. Congress committee branded the 1915 killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide, a view Ankara firmly rejects.
"If Turkey launches a large-scale operation, defying American opposition, then all markets will be hit by this... The markets believe the tensions are a good excuse to sell at the moment but the price of a serious clash will be higher," Fortis bank chief economist Haluk Burumcekci.
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