Turkey’s Corruption Scandal Goes from Bad to Worse

[Valin]

Commentary:

Michael Rubin

12.23.2013

 

Sometimes, bad things happen to bad people. I wrote here last week regarding the political civil war in Turkey which has erupted between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and followers of Islamist leader Fethullah Gülen. Many trusted Turkish interlocutors have written to expand on the topic, which has manifested itself as a bribery scandal. Erdoğan, in true banana republic style, reacted initially by seeking to sack the police chiefs overseeing the investigation. His ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is now threatening to classify any information from the bribery scandal as a state secret, the publishing of which could be punishable as treason.

 

Several Turkish journalists and academics point out that the investigation appears to now focus on Egemen Bağış, Turkeys minister for European Union affairs, and one of Erdoğans closest aides. Illegality or not, Bağış is one of the AKPs least-liked figures. AKP colleagues, Turkish journalists, and both American and European diplomats describe him as boorish, arrogant, and a bit of a blowhard. He is also extremely litigious, and has sought to sue Turkish journalists and analysts who have touched on some of his shadier dealings. Now that the arrests have propelled discussion of AKP corruption to the forefront, Hürriyet Daily News discusses the case in a bit more detail. Not surprisingly, it involves several AKP officials seeking to profit off of Irans sanctions-busting Gold-for-Gas scheme with Turkey:

 

(Snip)

 

The allegations of bribery and corruption are also starting to get too close to Erdoğan for his comfort. Supposedly, one element of the scandal is that the prime ministers son, his wife, his in-laws, and some close friends set up a foundation last year for the education of youth. The foundation opened a residence for university students. Now it turns out the Foundation didnt pay for the dormitory, but rather public money from the Fatih district municipality, which is headed by an AKP mayor now under detention. So what Erdoğans family did with the money they claimed was spent on the dormitory is an unanswered question.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Turkish Minister Offers Resignation Over Scandal

ANKARA, Turkey December 24, 2013 (AP)

SUZAN FRASER

 

Turkey's interior affairs minister has offered his resignation to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan over a massive corruption and bribery scandal that has resulted in the arrest of his son and 23 other people.

 

(Snip)

 

Erdogan was already expected to reshuffle his Cabinet this week to replace three ministers who are running for mayoral posts during local elections set for March. Reports said he would expand the Cabinet changes to include Guler and other ministers implicated in the scandal.

 

Police in Istanbul on Sunday clashed with a group of protesters denouncing the scandal, firing water canons and tear gas at a group who hurled rocks at them, the Dogan news agency reported. Hundreds of people took part in the demonstration.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Turkey: Erdogan under new pressure to quit as protesters take to the streets

Riot police use teargas, water cannon and plastic bullets to break up demonstrations as corruption scandal grows

Constanze Letsch

Saturday 28 December 2013

 

Protesters run as riot police use water cannon to quell demonstrations in Istanbul. Photograph: Emrah Gurel/AP

 

In scenes reminiscent of this summer's massive anti-government revolts, hundreds of people took to the streets in cities across Turkey on Friday night calling for the government to resign following a high-profile corruption scandal that involves sons of cabinet ministers, leading businessmen and the head of a state-owned bank.

 

In Istanbul, riot police broke up demonstrations using teargas, water cannon and plastic bullets. According to Turkish media reports, 70 people have been arrested. Protesters chanted "catch the thief", in reference to a highly political corruption probe that started with orchestrated dawn raids on 17 December and is continuing to send shock waves through Turkey, edging ever closer to the heart of the Turkish government.

 

Seen by many as the most serious challenge to the 11-year rule of Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the corruption investigation has targeted persons known to be close to the government of the Justice and Development party (AKP).

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

http://youtu.be/DE_zBdv6pHQ

[Valin]

Turkey 'takes US$ 100 BILLION hit' from political turmoil

12/30/13

 

 

ANKARA - The political crisis engulfing Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cost the economy US$100 billion, a top official said Monday, as financial markets rebounded from a massive free-fall.

 

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc also fired off a new salvo against a powerful group that the government charges is behind a sweeping corruption probe that has shaken the very core of Erdogan's administration.

 

He said the government was working on a legal plan against judges and prosecutors accused of wrongdoing or abuse of power -- a reference to the movement headed by influential US-based cleric and former ally Fethullah Gulen.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Irans Turkish Gold Rush

At the center of Turkey's corruption scandal is a "gas for gold" scheme that the White House dragged its feet on stopping.

Jonathan Schanzer, Mark Dubowitz

 

Turkey's Islamist government is being rocked by the most sweeping corruption scandal of its tenure. Roughly two dozen figures, including well-connected business tycoons and the sons of top government ministers, have been charged with a wide range of financial crimes. The charges ballooned into a full-blown crisis on Dec. 25 when three ministers implicated in the scandal resigned, with one making a dramatic call for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to step down as well. An exhausted-looking Erdogan subsequently appeared on television in the evening to announce a Cabinet reshuffle that replaced a total of 10 ministers.

 

The drama surrounding two personalities are particularly eye-popping: Police reportedly discovered shoeboxes containing $4.5 million in the home of Suleyman Aslan, the CEO of state-owned Halkbank, and also arrested Reza Zarrab, an Iranian businessman who primarily deals in the gold trade, and who allegedly oversaw deals worth almost $10 billion last year alone.

 

The gold trade has long been at the center of controversial financial ties between Halkbank and Iran. Research conducted in May 2013 by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Roubini Global Economics revealed the bank exploited a "golden loophole" in the U.S.-led financial sanctions regime designed to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. Here's how it worked: The Turks exported some $13 billion of gold to Tehran directly, or through the UAE, between March 2012 and July 2013. In return, the Turks received Iranian natural gas and oil. But because sanctions prevented Iran from getting paid in dollars or euros, the Turks allowed Tehran to buy gold with their Turkish lira -- and that gold found its way back to Iranian coffers.

 

(Snip)