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How
to Fight Alleged Corruption in Turkey: Eliminate the Allegers
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Originally published under the title, "Turkey's
Staggering 'Shoeboxgate': How Turkey 'Fights' Corruption."
Imagine one chilly day the American people wakes up to news that, in
early morning raids, squads of public prosecutors and police detain the
sons of cabinet secretaries, a mayor, a state bank manager and prominent
businessmen -- all with publicly known close ties to the Obama administration.
The mounds of evidence include telephone conversations, video material,
and more -- all unmasking the trafficking of huge amounts of illegal
money and expensive gifts among the suspects, who include a shady Iranian
businessman.
Dozens of audio recordings reveal a network of relations among Obama's
closest political and business allies, involving billions of dollars. And
imagine an audio
recording of Obama calling his son and ordering him to get rid of all
the cash he keeps at home; and his son, after trying for several hours,
tells him there are still millions left. And Obama claims this is a coup
d'état against his elected administration, and purges all prosecutors and
police officers investigating the charges.
This is what exactly happened in Turkey in December 2013.
In the
investigation, Reza Zarrab, an Iranian businessman, was accused of
running a network that laundered at least 87 billion euros to bypass
international sanctions on Iran, and bribing ministers, their sons and
senior public officials in Turkey.
Reza
Zarrab, an Iranian businessman, was accused of running a network that
laundered at least €87 billion to
bypass international sanctions on Iran, as well as bribing senior
public officials in Turkey and their sons, including Bilal Erdogan.
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The prosecutors claimed Zarrab handed out around $60 million in
bribes. Zarrab allegedly gave $5 million to (then) Interior Minister
Muammer Guler in return for Turkish citizenship. Zarrab also allegedly
paid $5 million to (then) Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan's son, Salih
Kaan, and gave a $300,000 Patek Philip Swiss watch to the minister.
Meanwhile, the police found around $9 million in cash stuffed into
shoe boxes at the home of Suleyman Arslan, then general manager of
Halkbank, a government-owned bank that was instrumental in trade between
Turkey and Iran (shoe boxes would later become a symbol of corruption at
anti-government protests across Turkey). EU Minister Egemen Bagis was the
other recipient of cash from Zarrab, according to the prosecutors. And Housing
Minister Erdogan Bayraktar was accused
of arranging multibillion dollar contracts for government-friendly
companies.
At the peak of the wave of arrests and investigation, Bayraktar would
publicly say:
"Whatever I have done, I have done it with [Erdogan's] knowledge and
orders." And he would argue that "the prime minister [Erdogan]
too should resign." On Dec. 25, 2013, a week after the investigation
officially took off, three ministers resigned from cabinet.
Erdogan claimed that an
influential Muslim preacher, Fethullah Gulen, and his network of
prosecutors and police officers were behind the investigations.
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From the start of the investigation, Erdogan seemed to fear that the
allegations now in the public domain could finish him off at the ballot
box in municipal and presidential elections in March and August 2014,
respectively. He claimed that an influential Muslim preacher, Fethullah
Gulen, and his network of prosecutors and police officers were behind the
investigations. He and his closest political associates, including Prime
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu claim the same
thing to this day. Gulen, who lives in self-exile in the United States,
was Erdogan's most powerful political ally until the two were engaged in
a power
struggle early in 2014.
For the past year, since December 2013, Erdogan's administration has
suspended, reassigned, prosecuted and jailed thousands of (mostly) police
officers on charges of attempting illegally to topple his government.
"If reassigning individuals who betray this country is called a
witch hunt, then, yes, we will carry out a witch hunt," Erdogan said.
There is speculation in Ankara that the next target of Erdogan's
"witch hunt" will likely be prosecutors and judges believed to
be members of Gulen's movement.
The government's move to reshuffle
the top layers of the judiciary changed the balance of power in favor
of Erdogan.
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All the same, the big blow to the Gulenists did not come from
Erdogan's counter-offensive, but from the ballot box. Erdogan's Justice
and Development Party [AKP] won 43.3 percent of the vote in municipal
elections last March, and Erdogan won 51.5 percent of the vote in
presidential elections in August.
For Erdogan, his election victories meant that all allegations
of corruption were baseless. The nation had found the suspects not
guilty. For the first time in the history of justice, voters had acted as
the jury for a high-profile corruption case.
That thinking, coupled with a move to reshuffle the top layers of the judiciary,
changed the balance of power in favor of Erdogan.
In October, a prosecutor in Istanbul dropped
all charges against the suspects in the corruption investigation. The
cash confiscated from them was returned, with interest! But there was
another investigation not yet closed.
Upon AKP's proposal, a parliamentary commission was set up to
investigate the charges independently. The commission consisted of nine
AKP members of parliament and five opposition members. Despite findings
reported by the government's financial crimes investigation body, which
said the personal wealth of the ministers in question had increased
disproportionately to their incomes, the commission decided on Jan. 5 not
to send the suspects to the Constitutional Court to stand trial. All
nine government MPs had voted against trials for the suspects, and all
five opposition MPs voted in favor.
Erdogan hopes to secure a
two-thirds parliamentary majority, so that the constitution can be
amended to legitimize his present effective executive presidency.
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Turkey's top court, the Constitutional Court, has the authority to try
ministers and prime ministers on criminal charges. A few days before the
commission announced its decision, Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu
said that his party did not trust the Constitutional Court, which, he said,
could be part of the coup d'état against the administration. To which the
main opposition party replied:
"If you don't trust the top court, how should ordinary citizens
trust the ordinary courts?" Good question. But the government shrugs
it off.
Turkey is once again heading for elections. The parliamentary
elections in June will be particularly critical for Erdogan, for a number
of reasons. First, someone other than him (Davutoglu) will be leading the
party's campaign for the first time since 2002. Second, Erdogan's
ambitions are not about just winning the elections. He seems interested
in securing a two-thirds majority, so that the constitution can be
amended to legitimize his present effective executive presidency. Erdogan
calculates that any publicity about his former ministers standing trial,
and evidence against them hitting headlines, could prune his party's
votes in June. He is probably right. If he wants to change the
constitution in favor of a lawfully executive presidential system, he
cannot afford to lose even a handful of votes.
The opposition is furious. So is the anti-Erdogan bloc, which makes up
roughly half of Turkey. There will be a final round of voting at the
parliament's general assembly at the end of January. The vote will be
about whether to send the corruption suspects to the Constitutional Court
or not. The AKP has enough of a majority to kill the move. But the
opposition relies on "secret voting," which can produce defectors
from the AKP benches. The opposition will need about 55 defectors from
the government to send the former ministers to the Constitutional Court.
This looks unlikely, but not altogether impossible.
Once again, Turkey has proven to be a fascinating country, putting rules
of law and ethics upside down. In Turkey, corruption suspects have a
shield against prosecution, and law enforcement officers who prosecute
corruption can go to jail.
Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a
columnist for the Turkish daily
Hürriyet and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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