5 ms·
Actually, it was fairly stable between 2003-2013. Then the hardcore political stuff began happening, Erdogan won the political fight to become a popular autoc
by mrtksn 5y ago
Actually, it was fairly stable between 2003-2013. Then the hardcore political stuff began happening, Erdogan won the political fight to become a popular autocrat assuming all power in 2017 by changing the constitution through a referandum then winning the elections - all fairly.
When he got free from any checks and balances he was free to implement his unorthodox ideas on economics. He put his son in law in charge of the economy, things accelerated but he still had some rebels around him and they took the son in law out of the picture, stabilised the economy just before shit hit the fan. Erdogan proceeded getting rid of everyone not supportive of his ideas and that's when stuff actually hit the fan.
BTW, there's uncovered corruption on a scale unheard in history. Seriously, Turks are no longer impressed by sums less than a billion of dollars. A mayor purchasing insurance from his own son for 10 million $ a year is something that will entertain you for a few seconds as an interesting detail, what keeps coming is the mayor spending 1 Billion $ on dinosaur statues.
- recuter 5y agoThis is when in my minds eye flashed some sort of trailer for an as-of-yet un-produced Turkish adaption of The Wolf of Wall Street, hilarious hijinks on a never before seen scale centered around Erdogan as the surprisingly likable protagonist.
- terminalcommand 5y agoThis is exactly what has happened :). People close to the government made unbelievable profits at the expense of the people. If you're interested look up the story of the evoparated 128 billion USD of the Turkish Central Bank. Our central bank sold 128 billion USD to friends of the son-in-law of Erdogan at a ridiculously low interest rate last year (1 usd = 6 Lira, now it is 14 Liras) with a confidential protocol. People have noticed it through the balance sheet of the Central Bank. Government officials refused the comment first, then they admitted that 128 billion USD were in fact sold. We still do not know to whom it was sold. This is probably the fraud of the century.
- pjc50 5y agoThe dinosaur statues made me go wtf as well: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-32535917 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-3253591...
- mrighele 5y agoThe parent was probably talking about not that single statue, but a whole theme park dedicated to dinosaurs, which costed 750M dollars, and opened only for a few months (1). But a bigger (albeit cheaper) wtf in my opinion is a village entirely made of castle-like houses (2) (1) https://www.duvarenglish.com/domestic/2020/06/25/ankara-theme-park-that-cost-millions-of-dollars-rotting-away-15-months-after-opening https://www.duvarenglish.com/domestic/2020/06/25/ankara-them... (2) https://www.insider.com/turkey-abandoned-disney-castles-villas-2019-1#the-town-has-an-eerie-past-3 https://www.insider.com/turkey-abandoned-disney-castles-vill...
- mrtksn 5y agoTo be fair, the hilarious castle-like houses village is a private investment :)
- mrighele 5y agoYou're right, I wasn't thinking about public sector only.
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoThis kind of thing is common in China. I'm not sure why this would seem very impressive, it isn't even on nearly on the same scale. It is all money laundering of course (or to say, transforming public money and credit into private money).