The global financial watchdog known as the Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, announced today that Turkey has been added to its “grey list” of countries subject to heightened scrutiny over terrorist financing, money laundering and institutional corruption. The move will further dent Turkey’s spotty image and likely further weaken the lira, which had already dipped to a fresh low today following a bigger than expected 2% rate cut by the central bank. Coming on top of ever-louder, anti-Western growls from the country’s authoritarian — and increasingly erratic — president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey is beginning to look more like Iran than a valued NATO member.
The FATF said despite “some progress across all areas of concern,” Turkey had “serious issues.”
