Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has named his son-in-law as the country’s finance minister after being sworn in to another five-year term, and the financial markets aren’t impressed. The country’s stock market and currency Lira fell after Berat Albayrak was named as Turkey’s Finance Minister on Monday. And it isn’t hard to understand why.
The financial markets were concerned that nepotism in the upper echelons of power is getting out of control. Armed with his new “executive president” power, Erdogan is feared to propel the country towards dictatorship, destroying the very little of democracy left. He held onto the Turkish presidency after winning 52.5% of the vote in a snap election held at the end of June.
Essentially, the country’s 95-year-old parliamentary system and the office of prime minister were dissolved. Now, President Erdogan can directly appoint ministers and vice-presidents and intervene in the legal system. After taking the oath of office in parliament, he said – “We are leaving behind the system that has in the past cost our country a heavy price in political and economic chaos.”
From a parliamentary republic to a presidential republic – that’s what Turkey has been transformed into under Erdogan leadership. The Grand National Assembly does not exist anymore. Effective Monday, it is one-man rule and the death of Turkish democracy. Erdogan is now the Turkey’s most powerful leader since Ataturk, modern Turkey’s secular founding father.
After news splashed that Berat Albayrak, the 40-year-old husband of the president’s eldest daughter, has been promoted from Energy Minister to Finance Minister, the Turkish lira lost more than 3% of its value. Already, Erdogan regime was tainted with “family business” that has benefited from illegal smuggling of oil from ISIS-held territory.
His smuggling business with the terrorists were proven from satellite images showing columns of tanker trucks loading with oil at an installation controlled by ISIS in Syria, before freely crossing the border into Turkey. Besides his son-in-law, Erdogan’s son – Bilal Erdogan – had also used his BMZ Group in the illicit business of trading oil with the terror group Daesh using oil tankers registered in Malta.
In fact, it was after Russia’s airstrikes which damaged ISIS infrastructure and destroyed more than 500 trucks that Erdogan had deliberately shot down the Russian Su-24 back in 2015. The dictator famously cracked down and put 160,000 people in jail after a coup d’état in 2016, which many believed was staged by Erdogan himself to eliminate all his potential enemies.
The Lira currency is now down 17% since the start of 2018 over fears of double-digit inflation. The cabinet reshuffle also saw the removal of Mehmet Simsek, Erdogan’s previous deputy prime minister and a former Merrill Lynch banker who was considered a reassuring force for investors and markets. Erdogan has been blaming external enemies as the source of the country’s economic turmoil.
Turkey’s current inflation of 15.39% is at a 14-year high. The appointment of Erdogan’s son-in-law is a concern to investors because they didn’t enjoy dealing with him when he was the energy minister. Seeing how Erdogan purges oppositions, suppresses press freedom and cracks down on the country’s Kurdish minority, critics are absolutely sure of growing authoritarian tendencies in Turkey.
Erdogan has ruled for 15 years since 2003 when he was first elected Prime Minister. His reign came to an end in 2014 because his own party’s rules prevented him from seeking a fourth term. He ran for president in 2014 – and won – but the position was largely a ceremonial role. So, he tried to change that by altering the constitution to give him more power.
He has dreamed of not only ruling Turkey the dictator-style but also changing the constitution to give Turkey a US-style executive presidency. As Turkey’s first Commander-in-Chief, President Erdogan would ultimately control the Turkish Armed Forces, estimated with strength of 639,551 as of 2015. And like any other dictators, he has a penchant for lavish spending.
His vast new US$615 million presidential palace with 1,150 rooms and a botanical garden has been ridiculed as an absurd, tasteless extravagance. Ironically, the palace is called the “White Palace”, an attempt to probably rival Americans’ White House. When asked why he wanted a new palace, Erdogan simply said cockroaches in his old office made it uninhabitable
Erdogan’s wife, despite claiming to live a “humble and modest” life with strict Muslim values, was actually a “shopaholic” whose jet-set lifestyle saw her making one shopping trip after another. She once closed down a shopping mall in Brussels to go on a designer shopping spree, and blew through more than £37,000 while browsing an antiques bazaar.
The Turkey’s president’s wife, Emine, once boasts how she drinks specialist white tea at US$2,000 (£1,500; RM8,000) a kilogram – and drinks it from gold leaf glasses worth US$330 (£250; RM1,300) each. The mother of four is known for her love of designer handbags and clothes.
Naturally, Erdogan’s inauguration on Monday saw only a handful of foreign leaders and dignitaries. Among them were Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Bulgarian President Rumen Radev was the only president of a European Union country to attend the inauguration.
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July 10th, 2018 by financetwitter
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