Turkey

Sunday a great number of Turks protested against new Internet controls introduced by the Turkish government. The protesters expressed their objection both online and on the streets.

Countries like Turkey and China should be pressed on a governmental level so that lift restrictions imposed by these nations on the Internet freedom, said Google’s top legal man. David Drummond argued at a public meeting with US Trade Rep Ron Kirk and other Mountain View wonks at the Googleplex on Wednesday that such behaviour by individual countries was bad for US trade.

"Internet censorship is really a trade barrier, and is operating that way for US companies that are trying to do business abroad," he grumbled.

As Visa unveiled today, it’s teaming with Turkey's Akbank and vendor DeviceFidelity in a move to launch Europe's first microSD-based contactless m-payment system.

Thus far, Akbank customers will be enabled to insert DeviceFidelity's In2Pay microSD into their handsets' memory card slots, turning them into contactless payments devices that can be used with Visa payWave terminals.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) urged Turkish government to stop blocking Google’s video sharing website YouTube as well as a great number of other web services under its Internet law that in fact do not cover these web resources.

As MoneyGram International announced Tuesday it has added Bank Asya, a leading financial institution in Turkey, to its growing agent network targeting to provide MoneyGram money transfer services at 160 branch locations in the country.

To comply with the Turkish regulation initiated by the Turkish Derivatives Exchange (TurkDEX) and its clearing house Takasbank Citi’s Global Transaction Services business for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea) has introduced third party clearing for exchange traded derivatives in Turkey.

At the moment Citi provides third party clearing for exchange traded derivatives in Germany, Switzerland, Greece and the Czech Republic.

Miklos Haraszti, a Representative on Freedom of the Media at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), urged Turkey to stop or amend its restrictive Internet policy.

"At present, 3,700 Internet sites are blocked in Turkey, including YouTube, GeoCities, and Google sites," said Miklos Haraszti, an OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.

SkyPostal Networks, Inc., the largest private postal network in Latin America, today announced that it has entered into a co-marketing agreement for its PuntoMio online shopping facilitator under the name GlobalShop, with Garanti Bank, which represents American Express Cardmembers in Turkey.

Turkey’s Central Bank will probably reduce its benchmark interest rate to a new low this week, in what may prove to be the last move in eight months of monetary easing. The central bank will reduce the rate by quarter of a percentage point to 9 %, the eighth consecutive decline, as predict some economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The others forecast a half-point cut. The Ankara-based bank will announce its decision tomorrow.