He recounts that the tourist industry in Turkey is absolutely dead since the airport bombing and the interdiction of Russian tourists. Indeed the economic impact has been so severe that his resort hotel failed to provide meat with the dinners which were in the all-inclusive price simply because they had no money with which to buy it. Shopkeepers, he says, cannot afford to keep the lights on and only turn them on when they espy a European tourist.
If you look at the articles adjacent to the article you cite, you'll see that tourism is a huge part of the Turkish economy. Even without the recent belligerency with Russia, the Russians had for some time been compelled to cut back their travel because of the price of oil. If Russia is a giant gas station it needs $80 oil to pay off the apparatchiks who sustain the government and the whole system simply cannot operate with oil at around $40. There are some reports that the Turks are courting the Russians and attempting to establish a modus vivendi with them. Meanwhile, Turkey continues to sustain Hamas and play a double game.
This situation tends to support your contention that the Turks are looking to the Chinese for funds. But one notes that the amount of funds they are getting compared to what is available from the West means that they are foolish indeed if they are courting Chinese money at the cost of Western investments and tourism, military partnership and protection, ultimately, goodwill.
My reaction to all of this is to wonder whether this coup was generated as much by the economic disaster which has occurred in Turkey as by the secular army playing its traditional role in Turkey, as it had in Egypt? In other words, has the president administration driven the people to the point of economic desperation and was this the motivation for the cool rather than a secular desire to keep Turkey out of the thrall of the Islamicists?
