News Scan, Dec 31st 2013: Turkey closes out 2013 with corruption row

Turkey finishes 2013 with corruption row

Turkey closes out the year embroiled in a tit-for-tat battle between the judiciary and the executive centered on the ongoing corruption scandal

Turkey ended the year 2013 with a gripping corruption investigation dominating the agenda and a conflict between the judicial and executive branches of government growing stronger.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) continued to hit out at a recent judicial board statement claiming the government was intervening with the investigation, as part of which two sons of ministers and a state-owned bank manager have been arrested.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has warned the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) that he, in his capacity as the head of the board, is the only authority that can release statements on behalf of the board.

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Turkey’s exports, imports up in November

Turkey’s November exports increased 3.6 percent while imports rose 2.2 percent compared to November 2012 ,Turkey’s statistical authority TurkStat announced on Tuesday.

Exports stood at $14.2 billion with a 3.6 percent increase, and imports at $21.4 billion with a 2.2 percent increase in November 2013. In November 2013, the foreign trade deficit decreased 0.6 percent from $7.195 billion to $7.151 billion. The coverage of imports by exports were 66.6 percent compared to 65.7 percent in November, 2012.

Seasonally and calendar adjusted exports increased 4 percent and imports decreased 0.9 percent compared with the previous month. Also compared with November 2012, the calendar adjusted exports increased 3.4 percent and imports 6 percent.

While exports to the EU accounted for 42 percent of Turkish exports in November 2012, the figure reached 44.1 percent in November 2013.

Exports to EU countries increased from $5.7 billion to $6.2 billion with an 8.7 percent increase in November compared to the same period last year. Germany became the top export destination for Turkey in November with a 12.4 percent increase to $1.3 billion in exports compared to the same period last year. Germany was followed by Iraq ($1.217 billion), the United Kingdom ($898 million) and Russia ($655 million).

In terms of imports, Russia led the list with $2.3 billion, followed by Germany ($2.1 billion), China ($2.071 billion) and Italy ($1.1 billion).

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Removal of civil servants spreads to Finance Ministry

The government’s massive removal of civil servants that precipitated after the eruption of a corruption and bribery investigation on Dec. 17 has spread to institutions other than the police.

The government has reportedly removed and reassigned 10 managers of the Finance Ministry Revenues Administration (GİB) as part of its reaction to the investigation, which has triggered a huge earthquake in Turkish politics, forcing three ministers to resign and Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdoğan to reshuffle half of his Cabinet.

Erdoğan’s government has so far removed hundreds of police chiefs and officers from their posts without showing any reason and exiled them to ineffective positions throughout Turkey. It is also preparing to appoint new governors to the provinces that are rumored to be places where possible investigations may be undertaken targeting the government.

A most recent example to this unprecedented purge was the expulsion of Mersin Police Department Intelligence Chief Ali İhsan Kaya, who was appointed to the post a year ago. It was not immediately clear where he was reappointed.

TODAYS ZAMAN

GYV calls on government to respect judiciary amid corruption probe

The government should respect Turkey’s independent judiciary as a corruption probe that has implicated senior members of the ruling party deepens, the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), whose honorary chair is Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, said in a statement published on its website on Monday.

“For the collective conscience and general public to be convinced that justice is being done properly, everyone — particularly including the government and the people and organizations it has links with — must respect the independent judiciary, which passes judgment in the name of the nation as enshrined in the Constitution and [Turkish] law,” the GYV said. “At this point, the people charged with corruption can be acquitted only if the judicial process is respected and the completion of this process without any intervention is ensured,” the statement added.

There is growing concern in Turkey that the government has been meddling with the judiciary in a bid to cover up an investigation that has implicated former Cabinet members, deputies from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), prominent citizens and close relatives of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The government has dismissed hundreds of police officers involved in the investigation and removed the lead prosecutors from the case.

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Turkey awards over $1 billion defense contracts in one week

The last week of the year saw Turkey’s defense procurement authorities signing deals worth over $1 billion in what procurement officials called a “pure coincidence.” “Those were programs that had been ongoing for a long time. It is a coincidence that the announcements came one after the other within a week,” one procurement official said.

In the largest of the three deals, SSM selected a local shipyard to award the country’s first-ever contract for the acquisition of a Landing Platform Dock (LPD). Industry sources estimate the contract totals around $500 million. The project was awarded to Sedef Gemi İnşaati A.Ş., a privately owned Istanbul shipyard.

Just a day before the announcement on the LPD program, the Turkish government signed a critical contract for the serial production of two different versions of the Hürkuş, an indigenous trainer aircraft developed by the Tusaş Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI).

And on Dec. 23 Turkish military electronics specialist Aselsan signed a $167.4 million contract with the Turkish government to build an X-band satellite communications system. Officials say the program aims to boost military data sharing and command of Turkish unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

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