MONDAY, NOV. 2 · NO. 18
Today: Erdoğan takes Sinop to Seoul | A Black Sea grain corridor | Fund probe reaches the exchange | OPEC+ holds
LEAD · ENERGY
Erdoğan Brings Sinop to Seoul, but Korea Is Still One of Four Bidders
Turkey’s $25–30 billion plan for four Black Sea reactors has no winner yet. Price, financing and local work will decide it.
ABOUT 6 MINUTES
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Seoul on Monday with a nuclear plant to place, and he has told his hosts so in plain terms. In an exclusive written interview first reported by Yonhap, he said Turkey regards South Korea “as a great potential collaborator” on its second nuclear power plant, at Sinop on the Black Sea coast. In the same answer he added the sentence that matters most: “We are taking into account our contacts with other countries and examining all possible choices in light of our national interests.” [1]
This is a three-day state visit, his first to South Korea since 2018, with a summit with President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday. [2] The Sinop question will hang over it. Ankara has spent years studying the site with Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), and it has not signed with Seoul or anyone else.
FOUR BIDDERS, NO CONTRACT
Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar set out the plan to Reuters in March: four reactors at Sinop and four more in Thrace, with talks under way with South Korea, Canada, China and Russia. No agreement had been signed, he said, and Turkey would pick the proposal with the most competitive terms and the largest local contribution. [3]
Seoul’s claim rests on paperwork. The two governments signed a nuclear memorandum during Lee’s state visit to Turkey in November 2025. It covers reactor technology, site assessment, licensing, financing and business models, and Turkey has since run extensive preliminary feasibility studies with KEPCO, Erdoğan said. [1] By June, ANKA reported, Ankara was still waiting for KEPCO’s offer on the price per unit of electricity and the investment model that goes with it. [4]
Four capitals are bidding, and Ankara has signed with none of them
Bidder | What is on the table | Latest signal |
|---|---|---|
South Korea (KEPCO) | Feasibility work on Sinop under a 2025 memorandum covering reactors, licensing and financing [1] | Erdoğan calls Seoul “a great potential collaborator,” Nov. 2 [1] |
Canada (AtkinsRéalis) | A feasibility study for CANDU reactors at Sinop [5] | Carney sees “good chances” and a possible decision before year-end, Oct. 23 [5] |
Russia (Rosatom) | Builder of Akkuyu; Ankara links new plants to its opening [6] | Akkuyu’s first reactor is due to start in the second half of December [8] |
China | Named by the energy minister as one of four in talks [3] | No offer made public |
Sources: Yonhap, Daily Sabah, Ekonomim, Vesti.ru, Reuters.
Canada moved into the race last month. Prime Minister Mark Carney, on the first bilateral visit by a Canadian prime minister, upgraded ties to a strategic partnership and said of the nuclear plant: “If you would have asked us a year ago how we would have pegged the chances, they would have been very low. Now there are good chances. There’s real competition, of course.” AtkinsRéalis Chief Executive Ian Edwards said the company would run a feasibility study for CANDU reactors at Sinop. [5]
Russia is already inside the house. When Erdoğan met Vladimir Putin on Sept. 1, he said Turkey was waiting to open Akkuyu and that steps toward new plants with Russia would follow the opening. [6] Bayraktar met Rosatom’s leadership in Istanbul on Oct. 24, [7] and Rosatom chief Alexey Likhachev says Akkuyu’s first reactor is due to start in the second half of December. [8]
WHY IT MATTERS
The size is the first reason. ANKA put the Sinop plan at four reactors of 1,140 MW each and an estimated $25–30 billion. [4]
What Turkey has said about Sinop, in numbers
Item | Figure |
|---|---|
Reactors planned at Sinop | 4 of 1,140 MW each, 4,560 MW in all [4] |
Estimated cost | $25–30 billion [4] |
Reactors planned in Thrace | 4 more [3] |
Akkuyu, for comparison | Russian-built under a $20 billion accord from 2010 [5] |
Korea’s last big win | Dukovany, Czech Republic: 2 units, CZK 407 billion (about $18.6 billion) [10] |
Sources: ANKA, Reuters, Daily Sabah, World Nuclear News.
The deal’s shape is the second. ANKA reported that Ankara expects to give the builder a guarantee to buy its electricity, and that the price and the length of that guarantee are the hard points. [4] Whoever wins sets a price that Turkish industry and households will pay for decades. Erdoğan named the same tests on Monday: power generation costs, financing and benefits for the Turkish economy. [1]
History is the third. Sinop has failed once. In January 2020 Turkey ended its work with a Mitsubishi-led Japanese group after then-Energy Minister Fatih Dönmez said its feasibility study had not met expectations on schedule and cost. [9] Korea arrives with a fresh reference: KHNP signed in June 2025 to build two units at Dukovany in the Czech Republic, for CZK 407 billion, or about $18.6 billion. [10]
The plant is also one piece of a wider bargain. Erdoğan wants Korean money in defense, semiconductors, robotics and AI, welcomed Korean interest in Turkey’s PD170 aircraft engine, and pointed to Hyundai’s new electric-car line at İzmit. He wants trade, now heavily in Seoul’s favor, to reach $15 billion: Turkey exported about $1.14 billion to South Korea in 2025 and imported $10.26 billion. [1]
PROFILE: THE MINISTER WHO WILL CHOOSE
Alparslan Bayraktar has been energy minister since 2023. He came up through the system he now runs: deputy energy minister before that, and earlier a commissioner at the Energy Market Regulatory Authority, the market regulator. He has also chaired the World Energy Council’s Turkish committee since 2015. [11] In public he has kept the same line for months, that the best terms and the largest local share will decide, and he has kept every bidder in the room. [3][7]
BEST MOVES
If you build or supply heavy plant in Turkey, register now with each bidder’s Turkish partners. Our view: the local share is the stated test, so the subcontracts will be written before the main contract.
If you sign long-term power deals in Turkey, ask how a Sinop price guarantee would feed into tariffs after 2035, and keep review clauses in contracts that run that long.
If you advise Korean or Canadian firms, read Tuesday’s signed texts for the word “Sinop.” Our view: a memorandum that names the site is a step; one that names only “cooperation” is not.
WHAT TO WATCH
IN BRIEF
GEOPOLITICS · BLACK SEA
Erdoğan and Zelensky Back a Grain Corridor as Washington Weighs a Sea Truce
President Erdoğan hosted Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at Dolmabahçe on Saturday, and the two agreed to work on a new Black Sea grain corridor. “We cannot accept these attacks under any circumstances, regardless of who carries them out or what justification is offered,” Erdoğan said of strikes on civilian ships. Zelensky raised the possibility of peace talks in Turkey. [12]
The same day, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington is reviewing Turkish and Indian proposals for a limited ceasefire at sea. “It doesn’t solve the war, but at least it solves a unique aspect of it,” he said. Canada’s Anita Anand said Russia had not shown it was willing to move ahead. [13] The idea has deeper roots: in January, Intelligence Online reported a confidential plan for a Turkey-led naval coalition of the Black Sea states, conditional on peace between Kyiv and Moscow. [14]
The move: If you ship grain or steel through the Black Sea, get fresh war-risk quotes this week; a truce would move them first.
WEALTH & MARKETS · TURKEY
Turkey’s Fund Probe Reaches the Exchange as a New Market Regulator Takes Charge
Korkmaz Enes Ergun, general manager of Borsa İstanbul since 2021, was detained on Oct. 31 in the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s investigation into investment funds. Prosecutors allege bribery and membership of an organization formed to commit crimes, Anadolu Agency reported. Deputy General Manager Atila Türeli is acting head. [15][16] The same day, Muhsin Atcı, head of the Tax Inspection Board, was named chairman of the Capital Markets Board (SPK). [17]
On Sept. 17 the SPK ordered 131 investment funds founded by seven portfolio management firms, including Bulls Portföy, to be wound up. By Oct. 24, 114 people were under arrest. The prosecutor’s office says it is acting on reports sent by the SPK. [15]
The move: If you hold Turkish funds, check whether yours is among the 131 and ask its manager how and when redemptions will be paid.
ENERGY · OIL
OPEC+ Holds Output While Doha Talks Test a Two-Day Plan for Hormuz
Seven OPEC+ countries, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, kept December production at September’s required levels on Sunday and will meet again on Nov. 29. [18] Indirect U.S.–Iran talks in Doha ran into a third day, with Qatar seeking the release of more than $6 billion in Iranian assets. Iran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within two days of the U.S. lifting its blockade of oil ships, releasing the assets and ending oil sanctions, cutting its timetable from seven days. Missiles struck a Qatari LNG tanker near the strait on Friday. [19] On Monday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said two crude tankers had caught fire after hitting mines in the strait. [20]
Brent fell 1.4% to $111.84 a barrel in early trading on Monday, after ending October at a six-month high. [21]
The move: If you buy fuel or freight, keep your cover in place until tankers actually move; an offer to reopen the strait is not an open strait.
If You Have Time · Four longer reads for the evening, the weekend or the flight.
PROFILE
Lee Jae Myung, From the Factory Floor to Erdoğan’s Host in Seoul
South Korea’s president left school for factory work, fought his way to the bar and now holds the strongest Korean card in Turkey’s nuclear race.
Lee Jae Myung, who hosts President Erdoğan this week, was born in 1963 into a poor family near Andong. As a boy he worked in factories instead of going to middle school, and an industrial accident left him with a lasting injury to his arm. He passed the school equivalency exams, studied law at Chung-Ang University and passed the bar in 1986, then practiced as a labor and human rights lawyer. [22]
His career ran through local government: mayor of Seongnam from 2010 to 2018, then governor of Gyeonggi Province, the country’s most populous, until 2021. He lost the 2022 presidential election by a narrow margin. In January 2024 he survived a knife attack in Busan. When martial law was declared in December 2024, he climbed the fence of the National Assembly to reach the vote that overturned it, and he won the presidency in June 2025. [22]
His government signed the nuclear memorandum with Turkey during his state visit to Ankara in November 2025, covering reactor technology, site assessment, licensing, financing and business models. [23]
The move: If you work on Korea–Turkey deals, read the texts signed on Tuesday line by line; whether they name Sinop, a price or a financing model will tell you how far Seoul is ready to go.
WEALTH & MARKETS · UK PROPERTY
Britain’s Budget Raises Landlords’ Tax Again as Prices Barely Rise
UK house prices rose only 0.8% in the year to September, and more than a third of homes sit in postcode areas where prices are falling, rising to 85% in London and the South East, Zoopla reports. Into that market, the Autumn Budget adds two more percentage points to tax on property income from April 6, 2027, on top of the rise in the 2025 Budget. [24]
Britain’s housing market is cooling as the Budget raises landlords’ taxes MeasureFigureHouse prices, year to September+0.8%Sales agreed, year on year−7%Homes for sale, year on year+7%Property income tax from April 6, 2027basic 24%, higher 44%, additional 49%Your First Home scheme£4.7bn of government-backed lending; applications from February 2027Social and affordable homes£1.5bn more, about 10,000 homes Source: Zoopla.
Britain’s housing market is cooling as the Budget raises landlords’ taxes
Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
House prices, year to September | +0.8% |
Sales agreed, year on year | −7% |
Homes for sale, year on year | +7% |
Property income tax from April 6, 2027 | basic 24%, higher 44%, additional 49% |
Your First Home scheme | £4.7bn of government-backed lending; applications from February 2027 |
Social and affordable homes | £1.5bn more, about 10,000 homes |
Source: Zoopla.
For buyers, the Budget sets up Your First Home, a new-build scheme with a 2.5% deposit and a 20% government-backed equity loan, with first loans expected in April 2027, and a First Time Buyer ISA from April 2029 to replace the Lifetime ISA for new savers. Zoopla notes that the tax effect differs for homes held personally and through a company. [24]
The move: If you let UK property in your own name, ask a tax adviser before April 6, 2027 whether the new rates change your case for holding, selling or restructuring.
GADGET
Google’s Pixel 11 Pro Fold Gets Tougher and Brighter, but Keeps Its Crease
Google’s new foldable is 5 mm thick open and 10.1 mm closed, 19 grams lighter than last year’s, and Google claims three times the durability. Its screen now peaks at 3,600 nits, up from 3,000, and its zoom reaches 30x. TechCrunch’s reviewer liked the cameras and screen but found the crease “very visible” and the camera short of the Pixel 11 Pro XL’s. [25]
The Pixel costs the same as Samsung’s Fold and less than the iPhone Duo FoldableU.S. priceGoogle Pixel 11 Pro Fold$1,899Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8$1,899Apple iPhone Duoabout $100 more than the PixelSamsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultrafrom $2,099 Source: TechCrunch.
The Pixel costs the same as Samsung’s Fold and less than the iPhone Duo
Foldable | U.S. price |
|---|---|
Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold | $1,899 |
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 | $1,899 |
Apple iPhone Duo | about $100 more than the Pixel |
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra | from $2,099 |
Source: TechCrunch.
The move: If you want a foldable for reading and email on the road, try the crease in bright light before you buy.
CENTRAL ASIA · KYRGYZSTAN
Kyrgyzstan Pauses New Gas Hookups for Two Years to Rebuild Bishkek’s Supply
Gazprom Kyrgyzstan will connect no new residential areas or villages to the gas network in 2027 and 2028, its deputy director general, Arzymat Aldayarov, told parliament. All investment in those years goes to rebuilding the Malovodnoye station in southwestern Bishkek, lifting its capacity from 10,000 to 80,000 cubic meters an hour, while a trunk pipeline under construction in Kazakhstan is due in 2028. [27]
Only 44% of the country has gas supply, with 462,000 consumers connected, the Energy Ministry says. [27] Power is the other side of the ledger. At the Organization of Turkic States summit, President Sadyr Japarov said the country uses only about 15% of its hydropower potential and held up İhlas Holding’s Kazarman hydropower project, 912 MW and about $3 billion, as a model of energy cooperation. [26]
The move: If you plan housing or factories outside Bishkek’s gas grid, budget for electric or other heating until at least 2029.
THE OTHER PAGE IN NUMBERS
85%
share of London and South East homes in areas where prices are falling [24]
3,600
peak nits on the Pixel 11 Pro Fold’s screen [25]
44%
Kyrgyzstan’s gas supply rate [27]
1986
the year Lee Jae Myung passed the bar [22]
The Best of Elsewhere · What is worth your ears and eyes this week, and why.
LISTEN
How Presidential Pardons Became a Paid Business
The Daily (The New York Times) · Thu., Oct. 30 · 33 min
The Times reporter Kenneth P. Vogel explains how clemency under President Trump has drawn lobbyists and fees, and who has paid to seek a pardon. [28] Worth it for anyone who wants to know how access to power is priced in Washington.
LISTEN
A Phone, Five Calls a Day and an $18,000 Month
The Koerner Office · Ep. 348 · Thu., Oct. 30 · 42 min
Chris Koerner talks with James, who runs a local service business with about 60 clients and made $18,000 last month, finding customers through five calls a day from local Facebook groups. [29] A plain lesson in how small, steady outreach adds up.
READ
Castles: A Fortified History of the World
Dan Jones · Viking · Nov. 3, 2026 · $35
The historian Dan Jones tells some 3,000 years of human history through its fortifications. [30][31] Walls show what rulers feared, and that makes a fine lens on power.
READ
The Nuremberg Women
Natalie Livingstone · St. Martin’s Press · Nov. 3, 2026 · $33
Subtitled “The Untold Story of the Eight Women Who Brought the Nazis to Justice,” it follows the women behind the Nuremberg trials. [30][32] A reminder of how much of history’s justice work happens out of the photograph.
Every pick links to the original. Our note says why it is worth your time; the work is theirs.
SOURCES: FRONT PAGE 1–21 · THE OTHER PAGE 22–27 · YET ANOTHER PAGE 28–32 (ACCESSED NOV. 2, 2026)
Map data: Natural Earth (public domain) · Map: The Other Post
The Other Post: The Daily Briefing for the Conscientious Leader, through an Istanbul lens is independent analysis for decision-makers. Nothing here is investment, legal or medical advice. Issue No. 18 · © 2026 The Other Post
ISSUE NO. 18
The Daily Briefing for the Conscientious Leader, through an Istanbul lens
Clear sight. Best moves. More options. — For leaders in business, government and society across MENA
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2026 · REPORTED THROUGH EARLY MONDAY, NOV. 2 · ENERGY · TURKEY · GEOPOLITICS · WEALTH & MARKETS
Feet in the world. Heart in Istanbul.