Anti-Nato protest marches in fear of turning 'Turkey into a battlefield'

ISTANBUL // The deployment of Nato troops and anti-missile systems that began in Turkey this week has heightened concerns from Turkish citizens that the Syrian civil war will spill across their border.

Nearly 40 German soldiers arrived in Kahramanmaras, a city about 120km from the Syrian border, to prepare the deployment of about 400 German troops, due to arrive in the coming weeks with two batteries of Patriot missiles.

"We are looking into issues like where the soldiers are going to sleep and how they will be fed," the commanding officer of the German team, Lieutenant Colonel Manfred Stange, said by telephone from the deployment site outside Kahramanmaras.

The United States and the Netherlands are expected to send similar numbers of soldiers and Patriot missiles to Turkey. Turkish news reports said this week the number could rise to nearly 2,000 foreign soldiers over the course of the next months. Several hundred Turkish troops will join the group.

While the foreign ministry welcomed the missile deployment as a sign of the alliance's "solidarity and unity" amid concerns that the Syrian government may resort to using chemical weapons, some in Turkey regard the move as a dangerous development.

Several protest marches have been held against the missile deployment and more are planned this weekend in Hatay, a Turkish province bordering Syria, and in Izmir in the west, Turkey's third biggest city.

"The occupation by murderous Nato has started," the Union of Turkish Youths (TGB), the youth arm of the nationalist Workers' Party, a small Turkish party, said.

Adil Gur, a prominent pollster, said the protests reflected a widespread concern among Turks that the arrival of the Nato weapons might herald a conflict with Syria.

"Turks have been adamant for a long time that there is to be no war with Syria, it's a fellow Muslim country after all," Mr Gur said. That was why the missiles caused concern. But, he added, he did not think that Turks were opposed to the foreign troops.

Most protest marches so far have only attracted a few hundred participants. But the issue has united nationalist groups such as the TGB and leftist organisations such as the Turkish Communist Party, which criticised the arrival of Nato troops as a preparation to turn "Turkey into a battlefield".

Although the protest movement is small in numbers and mostly confined to the political margins at the moment, there are signs that more mainstream groups could join in.

Some members of the Republican People's Party (CHP), Turkey's main opposition party, took part in protest marches in recent weeks. The Party for Peace and Democracy (BDP), the country's biggest Kurdish party, has also criticised the Nato deployment.

Some critics suggest the deployment of Nato troops and weapons is not about a potential military threat from Syria, but a move designed to shield Israel, a US ally and a country widely reviled in Turkey, from possible attacks from Iran.

Tehran has sharply criticised the deployment of a Nato radar system in Kurecik near Malatya in Turkey's south-east as part of the alliance's missile defence shield last year.

According to Iran, the missile shield's primary function is to protect Israel against Iranian counter strikes in case of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear installations. A team of Turkish and Nato military experts toured Kurecik last month, but it was unclear whether any of the Nato Patriot missiles will be deployed there.

Tehran has also criticised the planned Patriot deployment. Last week, General Hassan Firouzabadi, Iran's army chief of staff, was quoted as saying that Nato was bringing missiles to Turkey in preparation for "world war".

The Turkish government dismissed the statement, but some anti-Nato protesters in Turkey agree with the Iranian assessment.

"The Patriots are not coming to defend us, but to defend Nato installations and Israel," Levent Tuzel, an independent Turkish member of parliament who has taken part in protests against the missile deployment, said this week. "We do not want German, Dutch, Nato soldiers. They want to use us like a warship against the Middle East."

Mr Tuzel said he was sure that a large majority of Turks was opposed to the deployment as well.

"Even AKP voters are against it," he said in reference to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister.

tseibert@thenational.ae

* With additional reporting by Reuters

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”