Turkey Will Repatriate All Gold From The US To Ditch The Dollar

[Hydrogen]

After Venezuela, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands prudently repatriated a substantial portion (if not all) of their physical gold held at the NY Fed or other western central banks in recent years, this morning Turkey also announced that it has decided to repatriate all its gold stored in the US Federal Reserve and deliver it to the Istanbul Stock Exchange, according to reports in Turkey's Yeni Safak. It won't be the first time Turkey has asked the NY Fed to ship the country's gold back: in recent years, Turkey repatriated 220 tons of gold from abroad, of which 28.7 tons was brought back from the US last year.

According to the latest IMF data, Turkey’s gold reserves are estimated at 591 tons, worth just over $23 billion. This makes Ankara the 11th largest gold holder, behind the Netherlands and ahead of India.



Image link: https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/turkey%20gold%20holdings.jpg

Turkey's gold repatriation come at a sensitive time for Turkey's currency, the lira, which has been pounded, and plunged to all time lows against both the dollar and the euro despite runaway, double-digit inflation in Turkey, as the central bank is seemingly afraid of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and refuses to raise rates.

Meanwhile, Erdogan has taken a tough stance against the US currency, criticized dollar loans and saying that international loans should be given in gold instead.

"Why do we make all loans in dollars? Let’s use another currency. I suggest that the loans should be made based on gold,” Erdoğan said during a speech at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Istanbul on April 16, according to Hurriyet.

In what some saw an appeal for a gold standard by the Turkish president, Erdogan added that “with the dollar the world is always under exchange rate pressure. We should save states and nations from this exchange rate pressure. Gold has never been a tool of oppression throughout history."

Well, now that Turkey will soon have all of its gold on the ground, Erdogan will be able to launch a gold-backed currency if he so desires. Unfortunately, all signs point to the gold being repatriated only so it can be raided, pillaged and promptly deposited in offshore vaults by members of the ruling oligarchy.

As noted above, Turkey has been one of several countries which have moved their gold from the world's biggest, and most secure gold vault, that located 95 feet below sea level at 33 Liberty Street in Manhattan, also known as the New York Fed.

The repatriation wave began in 2012, when Venezuela announced it was withdrawing all of its 160 tons of gold at the NY Fed, valued at around $9 billion. Germany’s Bundesbank then demanded 300 tons be returned, with the Fed saying it would take seven years to do so; a scrambling Germany was able to complete the process 3 years ahead of schedule. The Netherlands has also repatriated 122.5 tons of gold.

As a result, according to the latest Fed data, the amount of physical gold stored at the NY Fed has dropped to the lowest on record, or 7.819 thousand tons, following a withdrawal scramble that started in 2014 and continued until the end of 2016. After a 15 month hiatus, withdrawals resumed in 2018, with 15.5 tons of gold repatriated in January and February.



“The central banks started the repatriation already a few years ago, meaning before we had Brexit, Catalonia, Trump, AFD or the rising tensions between the Politburo in Brussels and the nations of Eastern Europe,” said Claudio Grass of Precious Metal Advisory in Switzerland.

According to him, the world is becoming less centralized. “If we follow this trend, it should be obvious that the next step should be an even bigger break up into smaller units than the nation state. With such geopolitical fragmentation comes also the decentralization of power."

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-20/turkey-will-repatriate-all-gold-us-attempt-ditch-dollar

....

Tried to bold the most relevent points but tbh the whole thing is worth reading.

President Erdogan of Turkey offered some of the most hilarious pro-gold / pro-precious metals promotional material in recent history with this newscap:

"Why do we make all loans in dollars? Let’s use another currency. I suggest that the loans should be made based on gold,” Erdoğan said during a speech at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Istanbul on April 16, according to Hurriyet[/b].

In what some saw an appeal for a gold standard by the Turkish president, Erdogan added that “with the dollar the world is always under exchange rate pressure. We should save states and nations from this exchange rate pressure. Gold has never been a tool of oppression throughout history."

I have a feeling Erdogan's gold push is identical to Maduro of Venezuela's crypto currency push. They're get-rich-quick-schemes promoted by dictators of countries whose economies are likely to suffer over the short term.

With many nations dropping the dollar, promoting gold/precious metals and even crypto currencies in the case of Maduro. And also with china and many other nations choosing to denominate oil transactions in something other than the petro dollar, it seems this recent trend of "de dollarization" and negative sentiment against the US dollar will continue to propagate.

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[jaysabi]

People posting anonymously on the internet as "Tyler Durden" generally shouldn't be taken seriously. I've criticized zero hedge as a garbage website that deals in conspiracy theory and nonsense before. There's nothing overly red flaggy about this particular post, but that's probably because it's largely plagiarized from an actual news organization instead of being a hot take from their conspiracy wing (original article: https://www.rt.com/business/424670-gold-turkey-repatriation-dollar/  You'll see they've made minimal changes to some sections, reordered a few more with minimal additions, and have largely lifted entire sections word for word, all without attribution. Classy.)  Even though this particular post doesn't go off the deep end of nonsense, the comment section underneath the article is a hotbed of conspiracy theory idiots filling up space with hot garbage. Zerohedge doesn't have this following by accident, it's a cultivated target audience, and that should be telling. And what it should be telling of is don't take this website seriously. It may present some facts here (because they stole them from real writers), but whatever conclusion it wants you to draw is filtered through a worldview that isn't connected to reality in any meaningful way.

I'm less interested in what zerohedge has to say than what you think of the gold repatriation, which you provided at the end. To me, it doesn't even seem like enough gold to do what Erdogan says is the purpose of it. Gonna break the dollar with $20ish billion in gold backing your currency? Good luck I guess?

[davis196]

To me, it doesn't even seem like enough gold to do what Erdogan says is the purpose of it. Gonna break the dollar with $20ish billion in gold backing your currency? Good luck I guess?

Erdogan doesn`t want to break the US dollar with this move,he wants to stabilize the Turkish national currency from  inflation.Russia,China and Iran really want to break the US dollar dominance,by accepting gold,euro or even state-backed crypto transactions,but they still haven`t got any success.
I`m surious why most of the countriues keep their gold reserves in the USA?

[EzzNju]

Its a good move turkey is taking.U wonder why they stored their gold in a another country in the 1st place.partainin ditchin the dollar;its very hard to ditch the dollar when you are backed by only 20billion worth of gold

[cryptothief]

Yeah, I agree with a couple of the comments above, it doesn't really make any difference, apart from psychologically I guess. Storing gold outside of one's own country seems to be more that it is an easy option than a specifically financial one. Not to say that the psychological aspect is unimportant, just that it is unlikely to have any tangible effect on the actual currency value. More countries seem to be moving away from holding a gold reserve, whether that is a good thing is another matter. Having assets that (theoretically) will hold their intrinsic value for the next x number of years, is more of an insurance policy than anything else, and will only really come into play under the most extreme of circumstances. Wouldn't mind a couple of tonnes of it myself though.

[audaciousbeing]

Reading through the article gave me an understanding of what I have been ignorant about before on this gold issue being the bedrock of currency. There was this movie I watched in the past that was directed at moving gold from the community thereby making their currency worthless. But why on heart would a country go ahead and put its own gold in the custodian of another country?

The significance of this decision would make a lot in increasing the value of Turkey's currency but I don't see so much effect on the dollar because first is that they are at number 11th largest owner, they own 591 tons compared to US holding above 8000 couple with the cushioning effect that would have been put in play by the managers of the economy of the United States.

[maximrussky]

I think that this way, now not only Turkey will demand its gold back. I believe that many countries will now follow in the footsteps of Turkey.

[stompix]

Reading through the article gave me an understanding of what I have been ignorant about before on this gold issue being the bedrock of currency. There was this movie I watched in the past that was directed at moving gold from the community thereby making their currency worthless. But why on heart would a country go ahead and put its own gold in the custodian of another country?

Because in some cases , like Germany for example, the gold was never in Germany.
All that gold that might be "repatriated" comes from the economic trade surplus  West Germany had with the US and was stored there because they feared a soviet invasion.

Its a good move turkey is taking.U wonder why they stored their gold in a another country in the 1st place.partainin ditchin the dollar;its very hard to ditch the dollar when you are backed by only 20billion worth of gold

It's just propaganda and it's massively blown out of proportion by the Russian media who are not stopping a second from chanting the "usd is dead" song. Probably the $ is the only currency that has "died" more times than BTC.

Which one is on it's dying bed , the Turkish lira or the $?

[gentlemand]

I've criticized zero hedge as a garbage website that deals in conspiracy theory and nonsense before.

Zerohedge - the site that predicted 200 of the last 2 recessions.

Does anyone out there have a clue how the IMF's gold was paid for? Who or what coughed up?

[Basmic]

How can this weaken the dollar? This remains the primary currency for trade between Nations. Dictator Erdogan came to power in Turkey. I think he wants to toughen the fight against European-minded Turks. This can be recognized as repression. To him not restricted access to gold, he took him to Turkey.

[tora]

I do not think holding gold has the same importance as it used to have with either countries or private investors.

[jaysabi]

To me, it doesn't even seem like enough gold to do what Erdogan says is the purpose of it. Gonna break the dollar with $20ish billion in gold backing your currency? Good luck I guess?

Erdogan doesn`t want to break the US dollar with this move,he wants to stabilize the Turkish national currency from  inflation.Russia,China and Iran really want to break the US dollar dominance,by accepting gold,euro or even state-backed crypto transactions,but they still haven`t got any success.
I`m surious why most of the countriues keep their gold reserves in the USA?

I should have said break his country's reliance on the US dollar. Of course a country the size of Turkey doesn't have the economic might to impact the dollar in any meaningful way. The best they could hope to do would be to develop the strength of their currency to the point that they aren't reliant so much on the value of the US dollar for trade and commerce. But $20 billion in gold seems insufficiently large enough to be able to create the kind of backing for their currency they would need. Ostensibly, the reason for the gold is to back the currency by something people value more than the fiat, but if people know there's not nearly enough gold to redeem for fiat if they choose, it's should be unlikely to instill confidence.

[Falmera]

I think that this way, now not only Turkey will demand its gold back. I believe that many countries will now follow in the footsteps of Turkey.

Yes you are right fellow. Someday it will not only be Turkey but all other nations in the world. This is one way to cope with  the increasing value of dollar in a nation.