Turkey wants to get off the "grey list" - ridicule for Erdogan's minister
(Translated from German)
Created: 21/07/2023, 14:44 p.m.
Finance Minister Simsek wants to get Turkey out of the "grey list" for money laundering and sells this as a success. For this, the ex-banker earns ridicule from experts.
Ankara - The corruption scandal of 2013 in Turkey has revealed it. Between December 17 and 25 of that year, police arrested dozens of businessmen close to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister. Among them was the Iranian-born businessman Reza Zarrab, who later fled to the United States, where he was arrested and put on trial. Allegedly because he had provided extensive information to the FBI, he was later released.
This probably also included information about alleged money laundering transactions between Turkey and Iran. Erdogan later released all those arrested, the investigators first withdraw from the case and later arrest. Even today, most investigators are in custody. Erdogan called the corruption investigations of that time a "coup" against him. He and his son were also in the crosshairs of the investigators at the time.
Turkey on FATF "grey list" since 2021On 21.11.2021, Turkey was then placed on the so-called "grey list" by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) because its measures in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction were assessed as inadequate. Turkey is a member of the institution in Paris and has thus committed itself to taking action against financial crime.
Mehmet Simsek was a guest at the World Economic Forum 2017 in Davos. © IMAGONow the new finance minister, Mehmet Simsek ( AKP), has announced that he will get his country out of the grey list again. Extensive measures have already been taken to this end. 39 out of 40 criteria of the FATF have already been met. "We are determined to remove our country from the grey list with the efficiency that we will ensure in practice," the minister announced on Twitter.
Turkey has chosen to launder money and finance terrorismBecause the Turkish finance minister sees it as a success to want to put his country out of the grey list, he is ridiculed. "The grey list is a group of countries involved in drugs, terrorism and black money. We have been in this group for a long time. It was a decision. It has been a decision of those who govern us to launder money and keep a share of it. Now a minister is saying that we are determined to get out of this group. Take a look at the situation," writes economic expert Prof. Veysel Ulusoy on Twitter. Therefore, the economist suggests asking the question of why Turkey is on the gray list and who did this to the country. "Give an account".
Ulusoy is also the director of the economic institute "Ena Grup". When calculating inflation figures, his institute regularly comes to different results than the state statistics office TÜIK. While the authority puts inflation at 38 percent, the Ena Grup comes to 109 percent. TÜIK's figures are repeatedly questioned by experts.
Ex-Interior Minister Soylu accuses Europe of financing terrorismWhen Turkey was excluded from the grey list, the then Minister of the Interior, Süleyman Soylu, had raged. "They put Turkey on the grey list because we did not release Osman Kavala and did not release Demirtas, as well as did not take instructions from anyone in the fight against the PKK and the Gülen movement." In doing so, Soylu blamed the West. "It is Europe, the West, that finances terrorism and gives power and direction to terrorism. We are the ones who bear the costs and the fight for it, but they blame Turkey".
Experts accuse Turkey of lack of rule of law and corruptionAccording to many experts, Turkey has lost massively in terms of the rule of law in recent years. The country ranks 116th out of 140 countries in the rule of lawreportof the non-governmental organization "World Justice Project". In Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, the country ranks 101st out of 180 countries. These are factors that can deter Western investors in particular.
All the more reason for the Turkish president to set out at the beginning of the week to collect money in the Gulf states. Several contracts are said to have been concluded in Qatar, which are said to be worth over 50 billion dollars. However, details were not given by either the Turkish or the other side. "God willing, we will see the positive signals on our economy in a short time," Erdogan said after his return. (erpe) |
