Political and economic motives behind the corruption crisis in Turkey

Who benefits from corruption in Turkey? This is a critical question that must be answered in order for us to know the truth about what led us to this point and what led to the opposition to the Justice and Development Party (known by its Turkish acronym, the AKP), a party that has held the majority of the last three parliaments and won the presidency. Over the course of the past week we have heard and read dozens of media reports analysing political events in Turkey. In an attempt to stay away from the numerous details brought up by analysts, I would like to quickly give an overview of this period, as it is the most challenging faced by the AKP in 11 years.

The Turkish judiciary will have the final word concerning the nature of the political landscape, which is at once expected and complicated. Furthermore, it is the right of Turkish political parties to secure their future, whether they are secular, nationalist or religious, before the people forget them. The Turks will be able to overcome this crisis if the military holds true to its leaders’ word that it will remain neutral in political disputes. The military’s promise is neutrality towards all parties regardless of whether or not they are considered to be a group or an organisation, and regardless of whether or not they are independent and nominate their members in the bid for parliamentary seats. An example of the latter is the service-based Gülen Movement, led by Fethullah Gülen from his base in the United States, or other parties of this nature.

On the whole, the people of Turkey will be able to overcome this political crisis if this neutral stance holds in the upcoming elections. That is crucial in order to determine the public position on many different issues, especially whether or not they trust the judiciary in their country.

The question on everyone’s mind concerning the future of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the AKP is important: what is the position of the judiciary over many of the accusations that are being directed towards the party, and how this will impact on voters? The judiciary’s stance is even more significant in light of an intense media campaign that aims to demonise and subsequently topple the ruling AKP’s influence before voters head for the ballot box. Without such a campaign it would be very difficult to reduce the party’s popular support because those who voted for it previously know that there have been true and effective changes on the ground due to its efforts. Thus, any party seeking to topple popular support for the AKP will need to do much more than simply accuse it of corruption. They would need to demonstrate that a suitable alternative with relevant political programmes is available to take its votes away. However, many of the existing political parties in Turkey, such as the Republican Party, lost the people’s trust following the elections in 1950, the first after political pluralism was allowed in Turkey five years earlier.

As for religious groups, such as the Gülen movement, they cannot be considered as political parties and their ability to influence voters is limited; it does not exceed five per cent. Furthermore, they are likely to lose a lot of support if they ally with secular or nationalist parties against the Justice and Development Party, because of the ideological differences between them. Accusations of links between political parties and the influences of outside agencies have now become clear to the Turkish people.

It is important to note that one of the key members of the Republican Party, Shukri Elekdag, spoke of the current situation thus: “This is a planned political operation, par excellence, and it appears that a great mind is behind it because the steps were carried out with precision. It is evident that the aim here is to overthrow the government and it is also clear that it aims to ruin Turkey’s reputation by giving the false impression that the country is now corrupt. This campaign’s impeccable timing, coinciding with the current elections, demonstrates that it seeks to overthrow the Justice and Development Party.”

The depth of the attacks against the AKP and the evidence that many organisations and parties are participating in them, proves that these events have been coordinated abroad and that the ultimate goal behind them is to overthrow the government.

Revealing that there is external intervention in Turkey, aimed at interfering in the government, specifically in determining who will win the upcoming elections, is not something that will benefit the Gülen Movement to any great extent, because any objections to the AKP are not ideological in nature; this is true when considering both internal and external factors. However, these conspiracies are reactions that are based on economic and political decisions taken by the ruling party over the course of the past ten years.

What makes this situation even more dangerous is that an external force is attempting to control Turkey’s successful economy in a way that benefits financial lobbies and funders associated with groups abroad. The economy has been considered an important factor in politics since the AKP won the 2002 elections and it is for this reason that many organisations in opposition to the party experience financial cuts and losses, as was evident in the events in Taksim Square.

The economic dimension is one of a few that Prime Minister Erdogan would like to expose to the people and this is undoubtedly what he was referring to during his speech in Girensunspor when he said, “Since a week ago, Turkey has been faced with a conspiracy that is being carried out by parties that are deeply entrenched in the police and the judiciary.”

In order to understand the magnitude of this conspiracy, one must understand exactly who the victim is and who is the beneficiary of this alleged corruption. It must be determined which sides benefited from these conspiracies and which sides lost a great deal because of them. Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan announced recently that Turkish banks have lost a total of $20 billion and that the People’s Bank (Halk), suffered losses amounting to $1.63 billion. Halk also lost its oil revenues from Kurdistan to the American Federal Bank, due to pressure from both the Iraqi government in Baghdad and the Kurdish government, as it is no longer the Indian government’s preferred institution through which it was going to pay Indian debts to Iran.

Within a week, the value of the Turkish lira decreased by 20 per cent for the first time in the Justice and Development Party’s period in office. The real loser here is the Turkish economy and, by extension, the Turkish people whose losses will benefit foreign banks. The people of Turkey are aware that the government is facing illegitimate attacks organised by outside forces that seek to establish a state within a state. Slowly but surely, the truth is being exposed. The conspirators are exposing themselves through their statements and the numbers clearly demonstrate how a group can rob the country by increasing bank interest, which happened this week and resulted in the Turkish people losing eight billion Turkish lira. The AKP has been fighting corruption in Turkey for 11 years and working to move the country from 65th out of 102 countries ranked for corruption in 2002 to 54th out of 177 countries in 2013. Moreover, the government has also passed and implemented dozens of laws that combat corruption, as well as introducing and implementing European standards for combatting corruption in Turkey.

“If one person is found guilty of stealing money from the state during our [the Justice and Development Party’s] time in office,” said Erdogan, “he will be punished even if he is my own brother.”

Furthermore, it is wrong to compare what is currently happening in Turkey to what has been happening in Egypt in the last few months, for Turkey is a democratic state with laws, institutions and a constitution. Any political conflict, competition or disagreement in Turkey remains governed by the Turkish constitution, which recognises political pluralism and the right to form political parties based on a secular political system.

When it comes to issues requiring social secularism, a package of democratic reforms has been created recently to meet the needs and demands of the Turkish people. There is no conflict over the identity of the Turkish state or its status and political system, which means that the current political crisis can be solved with very little effort. There is no need to categorise this as a conflict between secular politics and Islam, for Islam is not a party to this conflict as the latter revolves specifically around economic and political factors.

The author is a Turkish writer. This is a translation of the Arabic text published by Al Jazeera net on 27 January, 2014

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.