for an autocrat in turkey is test economic tumult · 14/08/2018  · avital ronell, a professor at...

VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 58,054 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2018

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ISTANBUL — President RecepTayyip Erdogan has long madeclear that he considered no part ofTurkish life beyond his reach, notleast the economy.

Even before he was re-electedin June with sultan-like powers,he had built his popularity on sus-tained economic growth fueled bysignature megaprojects — the lat-est being plans for a canal bisect-ing the country. But critics havelong charged that much of that ex-pansion was built on budgetarysleight of hand, cronyism and cor-ruption.

Now Turkey’s worst economiccrisis since 2001 — the currencyhit another new low on Monday —has confronted Mr. Erdogan withthe limits of his authoritarian ap-proach and could end his long runof success.

It is also fanning fears of aglobal contagion, as Turkey’s trou-bles undermine investor confi-dence in other emerging-marketeconomies and raise concernsabout the exposure of banks evenin developed regions, like the Eu-ropean Union. [Page A9.]

Turkey’s economic troubles, an-alysts say, are largely of Mr. Erdo-gan’s own making. They have lessto do with his dispute with theUnited States and the prospect ofgreater sanctions than with Mr.Erdogan’s deepening economicinterference as he attempts tobend the logic of monetary policyand global financial markets tosuit his political purposes.

Yet while Mr. Erdogan assertsgreater control over life in Turkey— including the media, the judi-ciary, foreign policy and politicaldecision-making — it is far lessclear that he can bully an econ-omy increasingly beholden toglobal markets to submit to hiswill, they say.

Business leaders warn that themany strands of the president’sauthoritarian approach are inter-twined, and that Turkey will notclimb out of its hole until the coun-try enacts major structural re-forms that would undo many ofMr. Erdogan’s constraints.

Those would include allowing afree press, an independent judi-ciary and returning powers toParliament. Another step, the re-lease of political prisoners, wouldhelp repair relations with Europe.

“We have to do something athome,” said Umit Pamir, a formerambassador to NATO. “Only thencan investors come.”

While Mr. Erdogan could stillchange course, whether he will isfar from certain. In the meantime,the levers available to him will not

ECONOMIC TUMULTIN TURKEY IS TESTFOR AN AUTOCRAT

WORRIES OF CONTAGION

Erdogan’s Widening GripTrips Up Efforts to

Stem Crisis

By CARLOTTA GALL

A mosque under construction on Taksim Square in Istanbul. Turkey’s president has leaned on construction to fuel economic growth.NICOLE TUNG FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A8

An abrupt tweet last week byElon Musk about the prospect oftaking Tesla private was dashedoff with little forethought, and hadnot been cleared ahead of timewith the company’s board, twopeople familiar with the chain ofevents said Monday.

The account raised new ques-tions about the cryptic Twitterpost last week in which Mr. Musk,the mercurial co-founder andchief executive of the electric-carmaker, said he had “funding se-cured” for a buyout of the $60 bil-lion company.

The tweet was a highly unusualway of announcing a key strategychange at a public company. Itprompted the Securities and Ex-change Commission to contactTesla to inquire about the accura-cy of Mr. Musk’s tweets and thereason the disclosure had notbeen made in a regulatory filing,according to a person briefed onthe inquiry, who was not autho-rized to speak publicly on behalf ofthe agency.

On Monday, Mr. Musk issued ablog post that appeared to beaimed at quelling the uproar hehad created with his initial com-ments, which caused a dramaticjump in Tesla shares and a halt intrading. In the post, he declaredthat conversations with a Saudisovereign wealth fund had lefthim “with no question” that such adeal could be carried out.

Since early 2017, the fund “hasapproached me multiple timesabout taking Tesla private,” Mr.Musk wrote. Two weeks ago, headded, the fund’s managing direc-tor “strongly expressed his sup-port for funding a going-privatetransaction.”

“I understood from him that noother decision makers wereneeded and that they were eagerto proceed,” he added.

But three people familiar withthe workings of the Saudi fundcast doubt on his account. Theysaid the fund had taken none ofthe steps that such an ambitioustransaction would entail, like pre-paring a term sheet or hiring a fi-nancial adviser to work on thedeal.

And even if the fund were readyto move forward with such anagreement, it would invite reviewby the Committee on Foreign In-vestment in the United States, thegovernment body that reviewsthe national-security implicationsof such transactions.

A spokesman for the Saudi in-vestment fund declined to com-ment.

Tweeting Plan,Musk Shocked Tesla Directors

Facing Uproar Over aPost on Going Private

This article is by Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Neal E. Boudette, Lan-don Thomas Jr. and Kate Kelly.

Continued on Page A18

The case seems like a familiarstory turned on its head: AvitalRonell, a world-renowned femaleprofessor of German and compar-ative literature at New York Uni-versity, was found responsible forsexually harassing a male formergraduate student, Nimrod Reit-man.

An 11-month Title IX investiga-tion found Professor Ronell, de-scribed by a colleague as “one ofthe very few philosopher-stars ofthis world,” responsible for sexualharassment, both physical andverbal, to the extent that her be-havior was “sufficiently pervasiveto alter the terms and conditions

of Mr. Reitman’s learning envi-ronment.” The university has sus-pended Professor Ronell for thecoming academic year.

In the Title IX final report, ex-cerpts from which were obtainedby The New York Times, Mr. Reit-man said that she had sexuallyharassed him for three years, andshared dozens of emails in whichshe referred to him as “my mostadored one,” “Sweet cuddly Baby,”“cock-er spaniel,” and “my as-tounding and beautiful Nimrod.”

Coming in the middle of the#MeToo movement’s reckoningover sexual misconduct, it raiseda challenge for feminists — how torespond when one of their own be-haved badly. And the response has

A Female Professor, Her Male Student and the Limits of #MeTooBy ZOE GREENBERG

Avital Ronell, a professor at N.Y.U., was accused of sexual har-assment by her former graduate student Nimrod Reitman. Lead-ing feminist scholars wrote a letter in defense of Professor Ronell.

CAITLIN OCHS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A23

WASHINGTON — The whitesupremacists who alarmed thenation a year ago on the streets ofCharlottesville, Va., with their tikitorches and hateful chants showsigns, at least temporarily, of be-ing pushed back into the shadowsafter months of legal challenges,counterprotests and internalstrife.

Sunday’s sparse turnout on thestreets of Washington says littleabout the country’s current levelsof intolerance, bigotry and xeno-phobia. Hate crimes in the 10 larg-

est American cities were up lastyear, and fearmongering talk of“massive demographic changes”has made its way into the main-stream. But it does say somethingabout the disarray within a move-ment that last August had a dis-quietingly large turnout at a Unitethe Right rally in Charlottesville.

“It was a dead-enders eventfrom the get-go, meaning thatCharlottesville a year ago had anintention and agenda, and bothfailed,” said Lawrence Rosenthal,chairman of the Berkeley CenterFor Right-Wing Studies. “And the

Fractures in Their MovementKept White Supremacists Home

This article is by Richard Fausset,Serge F. Kovaleski and Alan Feuer.

Continued on Page A20

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO,Calif. — Diane Harkey, the Repub-lican candidate for California’s49th Congressional District, rec-ognizes that President Trump“doesn’t make women real com-fortable.”

Men just have a different style,she said: “They’re more warrior-oriented. We are a little more con-sensus-builders.”

But she laughs off the idea ofcampaigning as a woman. “I wantall voters, I like men too,” she said.“I don’t think it helps to talk about

gender.”It may be the year of the woman

in midterm campaigns across thecountry, but Ms. Harkey is not em-bracing it here in one of the na-tion’s most hotly contested con-gressional elections. The passionis far more evident 30 miles southof here, in the offices of a newgroup called Flip the 49th, whoseweekly protests following Mr.Trump’s inauguration drove theRepublican incumbent, Darrell

Issa, from his seat. Now, it is work-ing feverishly to elect the maleDemocrat running against Ms.Harkey.

“She’s anti-health care, anti-guncontrol, anti-family, anti-immi-grant, anti-environment,” saidMary Schrader, a Flip volunteerwho was a Republican until 2016.“She’s completely out of touchwith the women in her district.”

This is the bind for Republicanwomen running for office in theTrump era. The energy amongwomen that started with themarches after the president’s in-auguration is against them — sur-veys have shown that 70 percentof the membership of local resist-ance groups, and almost all thetop leadership, are women. Andhaving long resisted identity poli-tics, Republican women are reluc-tant or unable to claim any advan-tage to being a woman among vot-ers.

Republican women running inswing districts are instead left tocarefully carve out the separationbetween themselves and Mr.Trump, a president who waselected with the biggest gendergap ever recorded, and who regu-larly dismisses female officehold-ers as “crazy” and “low I.Q.”

Those running in districtswhere the president is popularhave been punished for so muchas criticizing him for incivility.

“We’ve told a lot of women,‘Don’t run this year,’” said Me-ghan Milloy, the co-founder of Re-publican Women for Progress,which helps to promote moderatefemale Republicans. “We’ve toldthem, ‘You’re a great candidate, ifit were any other year you would

G.O.P. Women, Told ‘Don’t Run,’ Dig In for BattleBy KATE ZERNIKE

“The energy is on the other side,” said Diane Harkey, the Repub-lican nominee for California’s 49th Congressional District.

ROZETTE RAGO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

CAMPAIGNING WHILE FEMALE

Fighting the Current

Continued on Page A14

WASHINGTON — Peter Str-zok, the F.B.I. senior counterintel-ligence agent who disparagedPresident Trump in inflammatorytext messages and helped overseethe Hillary Clinton email and Rus-sia investigations, has been firedfor violating bureau policies, Mr.Strzok’s lawyer said Monday.

Mr. Trump and his allies seizedon the texts — exchanged duringthe 2016 campaign with a formerF.B.I. lawyer, Lisa Page — in as-sailing the Russia investigation asan illegitimate “witch hunt.” Mr.Strzok, who rose over 20 years atthe F.B.I. to become one of its mostexperienced counterintelligenceagents, was a key figure in theearly months of the inquiry.

Along with writing the texts,Mr. Strzok was accused of sendinga highly sensitive search warrantto his personal email account.

The F.B.I. had been under im-mense political pressure by Mr.Trump to dismiss Mr. Strzok, whowas removed last summer fromthe staff of the special counsel,Robert S. Mueller III. The presi-dent has repeatedly denouncedMr. Strzok in posts on Twitter, andon Monday expressed satisfactionthat he had been sacked.

Mr. Trump’s victory traces backto June, when Mr. Strzok’s con-duct was laid out in a wide-rang-ing inspector general’s report on

F.B.I. BanishesAn Agent WhoReviled Trump

By ADAM GOLDMANand MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

Continued on Page A12

People with the disease figured it was alifelong problem, but new gene therapiesmay be proving them wrong. Above, amicrograph of a blood clot. PAGE D1

SCIENCE TIMES D1-6

Taking Aim at HemophiliaJesse Green says “Gettin’ the Band BackTogether” rehashes “a million tiredtropes.” Above, Mitchell Jarvis. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

A Musical MishmashThe post office atop Mount Fuji hassomething more coveted than a “like”on Instagram: a postmark. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-9

From the Top of Japan

To fight fraud, financial institutions andother companies are quietly watchinghow you type, swipe and tap on yourdevice and building profiles that canhelp weed out impostors. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-5

All Thumbs? The Bank KnowsPresident Trump seemed to acknowl-edge what aides have declined to con-firm: His White House had aides signnondisclosure agreements. PAGE A10

NATIONAL A10-20

The Word on Staying Mum

Stephen Payne, a longtime understudy,gets his first Broadway starring role in“Straight White Men.” PAGE C1

A Backup Takes the SpotlightBoth North and South Korea want anend declared for the war, but the UnitedStates is not ready. PAGE A6

Ending the Korean War

A father’s effort to erase lies aboutSandy Hook from the internet isstopped short by Automattic, the opera-tor of WordPress.com, which says“untrue content is not banned.” PAGE B1

Where Lies Are Allowed

Paul Krugman PAGE A26

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27Hundreds of people got in line to regis-ter their cars as for-hire vehicles beforea cap goes into effect. PAGE A22

NEW YORK A22-25

Rushing to Register Cars

Florida prosecutors brought a charge ina killing that reignited controversy overthe Stand Your Ground law. PAGE A20

Charge in Parking Lot Killing

MUSK’S MESS Time for the S.E.C.to rethink Twitter rules, AndrewRoss Sorkin writes. PAGE B1

Late EditionToday, variably cloudy, a few show-ers, heavier thunderstorms, high 83.Tonight, partly cloudy, low 70. To-morrow, partly sunny, warmer, high90. Weather map is on Page A24.

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