This is a guest post written by Robert Ellis.

Corruption in Turkey is endemic, stretching back to the Ottoman empire in the sixteenth century, but it was not until the liberalization of the Turkish economy in the 1980’s under Turgut Özal it took on a new dimension. Özal’s remark, “My civil servants know how to take care of business”, has become apocryphal, but there was a lift-off in the 1990’s.

Tansu Ciller, who became Turkey’s first female prime minister in 1993, bowed out in style three years later, when she issued an order for the release of 500 billion Turkish lira ($6.5 million) from the state slush fund for “secret service expenses”, and a convoy of lorries travelled round Ankara at the dead of night to collect the cash from various banks. A parliamentary majority later acquitted her of any wrongdoing.

Bertolt Brecht’s conclusion, “Robbing a bank’s no crime compared to owning one”, took on a new take in Turkey under Mesut Yilmaz, who became premier three times from 1991 to 1999. With the right political support it was possible to open a bank and siphon off the liquidity, but with the financial crisis of 2001 21 banks were taken into receivership with a cost to the state of $60 billion.

The Turkish economy was saved from collapse by the International Monetary Fund, which stepped in with a series of stand-by loans. Under the tutelage of the IMF fiscal discipline was restored, in a manner similar to the establishment of an international Adminstration of the Public Debt after the Ottoman government declared bankruptcy in 1875.

A telling example of the economic laissez-faire that ruled at the time was the way the tender for the privatization of the state-owned Türkbank was rigged, so that a crony of Mesut Yilmaz’s took over the bank for $600 million. There were also allegations that the mafia had scared off other bidders during the tender process. Yilmaz was later tried at the Supreme Court on charges of corruption but the charges against him were dropped on technical grounds.

It was the collapse of the three-party coalition led by the veteran politician, Bülent Ecevit, that paved the way for the advent of the AKP (Justice and Development Party) government in November 2002. Once again, it was corruption that undermined not only the coalition but also the Turkish economy.

At a dramatic meeting of the National Security Council in February 2001 President Sezer confronted Ecevit with his failure to tackle corruption with the words: “Prime Minister, you are sitting on mud.” Against advice, Ecevit held a press conference airing their disagreement and two days later Turkey faced its worst economic crisis since the Second World War.

The last straw was the Amnesty Law of December 2000, which provided for the reprieve of thousands of murderers, embezzlers and rapists. The original intention, proposed by the Prime Minister’s wife, Rahsan, was to provide for “victims of fate” but the proposal quickly became a bandwagon which unscrupulous politicians were not slow to jump aboard. The result was a political landslide two years later, which wiped out the established political parties (with the exception of CHP, Atatürk’s old party) and led to the establishment of a solid one-party government.

Justice and development
When the AKP government came to power with 34 percent of the votes and 363 out of 550 seats in the Grand National Assembly, there was an expectation of clean governance and the new premier, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, emphasized that the party’s acronym, AK, means ‘white’ or ‘clean’ in Turkish.

However, six years later, and a year after the AKP won another resounding victory with 47 percent of the votes, the government’s fortunes have changed. According to the latest opinion poll support for the AKP has fallen to 32 percent, which can be explained both by the deteriorating economic situation and the latest corruption scandal.

The directors of an Islamic charity in Germany, the Lighthouse Foundation, have been found guilty of the embezzlement of €17 million ($24 million) in donations, most of which was transferred to business connections in Turkey, including the Islamist Kanal 7 TV channel, and allegedly to the Prime Minister’s office. The chairman of the Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTUK) is also suspected of being a courier.

Tayyip Erdogan has strenously denied any connection with the fraud and has mounted an attack on the Dogan Media Group, the largest in Turkey, for its coverage. However, the Lighthouse case is not an isolated incident but is one of a number of land and tender corruption deals that have recently been uncovered.

Among the more notable examples is that of Saban Disli, deputy leader of the AKP, who resigned after it was revealed he had received a million dollars for expediting a planning application on behalf of Tesco, the UK’s biggest retailer. In another case the AKP mayor of Gaziantep received over half a million dollars for re-zoning land for commercial purposes. And the AKP’s provincial chairman in Batman, also in southeastern Turkey, has been arrested along with seven others accused of rigging public tenders.

But the governing party is responsible for its own misery. One of the main obstacles to prosecuting corrupt politicians, apart from the Turkish legal system, is their parliamentary immunity, which Tayyip Erdogan promised to remove, but this promise he has not kept.

On the contrary, he is shielded by this immunity from more than a dozen cases pending against him. Shortly after Erdogan came to power, charges against him for rigging contracts while mayor of Istanbul were dropped and the public prosecutor declared Erdogan had the right to earn money.

The main engine for the redistribution of wealth in favour of AKP supporters is the Public Procurement Law, which in 2003 against the IMF’s opposition excluded energy, water, transportation and telecommunications from its scope. A further amendment planned by the government will make the awarding of state and municipal contracts even less transparent.

In a controversial move to increase the AKP’s control of the media Calik Holding, which is owned by a close friend of the PM’s and where Erdogan’s son-in-law is the general manager, successfully bid $1.1 billion for the Sabah-ATV media group, Turkey’s second largest. However, the bid was unopposed and $750 million of the purchase price came from two loans provided by two state banks managed by government appointees.

An ambitious project to carry water, natural gas, electricity and oil through a multi-purpose pipeline from Turkey to Israel has been met with unease from the interested parties, as the Turkish government has chosen the Calik Group as the sole contractor. In a recent column Mustafa Akyol, deputy editor of the Turkish Daily News and an AKP protagonist, concedes that the government may be prone to the chronic diseases of Turkish politics: nepotism, patronage and corruption.

As the French put it: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose – the more things change, the more they stay the same. But a few years ago a Norwegian commercial put things more succinctly. In promoting the same French fries as before but with a brand-new name, they came to the triumphant conclusion: “So you see, a good name does wonders. Same shit, new wrapping.”

Robert Ellis is a frequent commentator on Turkish affairs in the Danish press and since 2005 also in Turkish Daily News. However, after a critical article on the AKP in the Los Angeles Times in March, he was informed by TDN’s editor he was ‘persona non grata.’