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AKP’s 'spring' is showing signs of doom

Like all other similar regimes that have fallen in the past, and despite its grandeur and posturing, the AKP is living through its final autumn!

AKP’s 'spring' is showing signs of doom

There are three important circumstances which could topple a government of a country that is fairly democratic and still holds political morality. These are all present in Turkey today.

Firstly, the main opposition leader Kılıçdaroğlu revealed the Isle of Man papers thereby exposing the fact that people to close the president (family members) transferred 15 million dollars to a “1 sterling account” in 2011 and 2012.

Secondly, in the last few days, Kılıçdaroğlu has questioned Erdoğan on his claim that they have spent 30 billion dollars on Syrian refugees. In his speech at a UN meeting, Erdoğan declared that his government had spent 30 billion dollars on refugees. If he doesn't formally reveal how the 30 billion dollars were spent, the AKP will be associated with another scandal.

Thirdly, the Zarrab-Atilla case in the USA is intensifying. M Hakan Atilla is no longer the only defendant in this court case. Zarrab is now a witness and may be released from prison. It is now clear that the 4.5 million dollars found in the house of the former Halkbank General Manager were paid with interest to him. As a result, Atilla’s lawyers claimed in his defence statement that the main culprit is actually Süleyman Aslan and not Hakan Atilla.

THE ISLE OF MAN DOCUMENTS ARE THE BIGGEST TOPIC ON THE NATIONAL AGENDA

Kılıçdaroğlu (the main opposition party leader) brought the issue into the limelight by making public documents showing that that President’s son, son-in-law, brother and his own ex-principal clerk have transferred 15 million dollars to a “1 Sterling Account” on the Isle of Man.
At first sight, it might seem normal and one might say “there is nothing wrong with the Presidents’ relatives sending a company overseas money”. But when the problem is that the President’s own relatives are sending money to a company overseas; there are naturally questions about the source of such large amounts of money, why they used an offshore account and other legal and moral issues also enter the debate such as whether the tax has been paid on this money. It is clear that the subject will be most debated in the latter context.
When the President called on Kılıçdaroğlu to prove his allegations, he said: “I will resign if you can prove that I have a single penny in an overseas account”. Whilst this leaves the President room for manoeuvring away from the statement he made, it is clear that the debate will continue to see calls for the President needing to resign as a result of the legal and moral challenges relating to the Isle of Man documents. This is because it is implausible for these individuals to have sent these large sums of money without the President’s knowledge and the current situation also calls into question whether the Isle of Man monies relates back to the 17-25 December tapes revealing the President’s operations to dissolve money relating to corruption allegations at the time.
In short, it is clear that debates surrounding the Isle of Man documents will lead to new money transfer documents being revealed and this will only make the public debate grow.
Of course, the political ramifications of these discussions will also become a whole lot clearer.

HOW WAS 30 BILLION DOLLARS SPENT ON REFUGEES?

In response to claims by the government that “30 Billion dollars have been spent on refugees”, Kılıçdaroğlu is asking “Where and how this money was spent?”
There are almost 3 million refugees in Turkey and if we accept that 30 Billion Dollars has been spent, this equates to 10k dollars per refugee.
In short, the government's claim means spending 60k dollars on a refugee family of 6 – this is a significant amount of money.
When we see that the majority of refugees are surviving by sleeping rough, making ends meet by working in agriculture, construction sites and factories or see that a significant number are setting up their own businesses – it begs the questions where this so-called 10k dollars per refugee been spent.
In the circumstances, it becomes clear that the bulk of government support for refugees is spent on 200-300 thousand refugees living in refugee camps. On a rough estimate, this equates to the government spending 100k dollars (equivalent to 400k Turkish liras) per refugee. This week the deputy prime minister, Recep Akdağ, said that 20 billion dollars had been spent on food, drink, setting up camps, building roads and health services etc and that this figure had exceeded 30 billion after taking into account the spending by Red Crescent, councils, charities and other trusts. Akdağ then called on Kılıçdaroğlu to resign. However, Kılıçdaroğlu does not want a rambling list of costs like this. Kılıçdaroğlu is seeking the formal expenses records, showing which companies have been paid and what has been the purpose of the spending. If this question is pressed, it could reveal not just how the refugee situation has been exploited and which companies and individuals have gained from the crisis but can also lead to revelations relating to whether or not jihadist groups have received financial support under the banner of “refugee support”.

EVERY ‘AUTUMN ENDS IN WINTER’!

All dictatorships and tyrannies throughout history have fallen following large-scale corruption, bribery, illicit money laundering, moral corruption and circumventing of law and order to allow select individuals to behave as they please.
Today the Erdoğan-AKP government has come to a stage where it is increasingly implicated in crimes such as bribery, corruption, tax evasion, money laundering, looting of treasury funds and favouritism.
Like all other similar regimes that have fallen in the past, and despite its grandeur and posturing, the AKP is living through its final autumn!
The frequency and growing nature of scandals such as these show that power has gone to their heads and is a sign of their imminent fall.  This autumn will be followed by their final “winter”!


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