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Turkey loses cachet as emerging market

Top US economic expert says, "Turkey is not an emerging market."
Ian Bremmer, President, Eurasia Group, U.S.A., Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki (L-R) attend a session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 29, 2009. Business leaders and policymakers meeting in Davos turn their attention to financial regulation, energy, trade and global security after hearing China and Russia blame debt-fuelled consumption for massive financial collapse. REUTERS/Pascal Lauener   (SWITZER

I don’t think Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan knows Ian Bremmer. He may therefore not have heard the former US Treasury Secretary and Harvard University professor Lawrence Summers when he stated, "The global economy has no sharper or more prescient analyst than Ian Bremmer.’’

But Erdogan may have heard of Eurasia Group, which Bremmer founded and leads. On the other hand, Ali Babacan, who participated at the Davos meetings and who is best described as “if not Turkey’s economic czar, the deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs,” knows both Bremmer and Eurasia Group.

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