![A real estate advertising offers apartments with the view on the canal, in the small coastal village of Karaburun, near Istanbul, on June 12, 2018. - Karaburun's residents are waiting if a controversial new canal that will be built for Istanbul will change the region for the good. The ambitious Canal Istanbul project, first announced by Turkish current President in 2011 when he was prime minister, would begin in the Istanbul district of Kucukcekmece and then head toward Sazlidere reservoir before emerging i](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2020/07/GettyImages-974984116.jpg/GettyImages-974984116.jpg?h=bc816b12&itok=2r6UEK_g)
Mustafa Sonmez is a Turkish economist and writer. He has worked as an economic commentator and editor for more than 30 years and authored some 30 books on the Turkish economy, media and the Kurdish question. On Twitter: @mustfsnmz
![A real estate advertising offers apartments with the view on the canal, in the small coastal village of Karaburun, near Istanbul, on June 12, 2018. - Karaburun's residents are waiting if a controversial new canal that will be built for Istanbul will change the region for the good. The ambitious Canal Istanbul project, first announced by Turkish current President in 2011 when he was prime minister, would begin in the Istanbul district of Kucukcekmece and then head toward Sazlidere reservoir before emerging i](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2020/07/GettyImages-974984116.jpg/GettyImages-974984116.jpg?h=bc816b12&itok=2r6UEK_g)
![Turkish workers of former state-owned tobacco and alcohol monopoly TEKEL shout slogans in protest against layoffs and the government�s labor policy on the 65th day of their strike in Ankara on February 18, 2010. Workers are demonstrating for the rights of some 10,000 workers who were made redundant by the privatization of the state tobacco monopoly TEKEL in 2008. AFP PHOTO/ADEM ALTAN (Photo credit should read ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2020/07/GettyImages-96826128.jpg/GettyImages-96826128.jpg?h=a5ae579a&itok=4-mJKtJM)
![GettyImages-1017784728.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2020/07/GettyImages-1017784728.jpg/GettyImages-1017784728.jpg?h=639a72b2&itok=ZBSi2QKM)
![Turkish lira banknotes are pictured at a bank in the town of Sarmada in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, on June 14, 2020. - Authorities in northwest Syria are taking steps to substitute the plummeting Syrian pound with the Turkish lira to shield their opposition-held region from an economic crisis ahead of new US sanctions, an official said. The Salvation Government -- a civilian body affiliated to the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadist group which dominates the Idlib region -- had already started paying wa](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2020/07/GettyImages-1220229194.jpg/GettyImages-1220229194.jpg?h=a5ae579a&itok=Rs1yC-hy)
![AFYONKARAHISAR, TURKEY - MARCH 31: Textile workers wearing face masks laboring at a textile factory turned into medical suits production plant due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey on March 31, 2020. (Photo by Canan Tukelay/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2020/05/GettyImages-1209156437.jpg/GettyImages-1209156437.jpg?h=a5ae579a&itok=MkQzbnei)
Mustafa Sonmez is a Turkish economist and writer. He has worked as an economic commentator and editor for more than 30 years and authored some 30 books on the Turkish economy, media and the Kurdish question. On Twitter: @mustfsnmz