The Turkish government's reluctance to punish politicians guilty of fraud and try to stop corruption is behind an unprecedented crisis at the higher echelons of the state that has hit the economy, observers said Wednesday, February 21.
The crisis erupted Monday, February 20, when Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit stormed out of a security meeting after President Ahmet Necdet Sezer made "grave accusations" against his government, charging that its fight against corruption was insufficient.
The clash, which saw Sezer and ministers exchanging insults and a copy of the constitution flying through the air, came after Ecevit criticized Sezer for appointing a team to inspect public banks and his earlier defense of the energy minister, widely accused of corruption.
The row broke out at a time when the government was carrying out nationwide operations against corruption in several domains — from drug trafficking to customs, from energy tenders to fraudulent exports.
The campaign won huge public support and made a hero out of the driving force behind it, Interior Minister Sadettin Tantan. "There is no doubt that the present government is more active and successful than any other government in fighting corruption," Gunduz Aktan wrote in the liberal daily Radikal Wednesday
.
But doubts over the genuine resolve of the government arose when it refrained from sacking and charging high-level bureaucrats and ministers despite what critics describe as personal involvement in fraud.
"The operations have targeted only low-level bureaucrats, the private sector and criminal gangs. It is interesting that the only probe against politicians was initiated by the military," Aktan said. He was referring to an investigation into the energy ministry over suspected fraud in multi-million-dollar energy tenders, which was launched last month on the basis of information obtained by paramilitary police.
"It is incomprehensible that Energy Minister Cumhur Ersumer does not resign when such a serious probe is under way," the columnist added.
Sinan Aygun, the head of the Ankara chamber of commerce, also stressed that the government should not cover-up any misuse of power by its members in the name of political stability. "Anybody who is involved in corruption should be punished. Whether they are ministers or not, these kinds of people should go away," he told AFP. "The people are fed up with corruption and they are suffering because of it. They will support anybody who carries on the fight," Aygun added.
Cuneyt Ulsever from the mass-circulation Hurriyet said the reason for Monday's clash was Sezer's decision to send inspectors to three public banks, whose losses have reached some $20 billion (€22 billion euros).
”According to rumors, documents pertaining to fraudulent loans, which were not paid back to these banks, are now locked in the safes of some ministers," he said. Aygun also criticized the government for failing to reveal how the banks ran up such huge losses. "For months we have been asking for explanation, but in vain," he said.
The observers agreed that sacking ministers responsible for corruption would not necessarily mean the collapse of Ecevit's fragile three-way coalition, which also faces the tough task of introducing drastic political and economic reforms to promote Turkey's EU candidacy.
"Corruption is no longer tolerated globally. Anywhere in the world, neither the people nor the economy can endure corruption and Turkey should keep up with this trend," Nigar Goksel, a researcher on corruption with the Foundation of Economic and Social Studies, told AFP. — (AFP, Ankara)
by Sibel Utku
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
