İYİ Party Chair Akşener: In Turkey, money laundered by the state
* Photo: Metin Aktaş - Ankara / AA
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İYİ Party Chair Meral Akşener talked about the economy management in Turkey at her weekly group meeting today (October 27).
She recalled that international finance watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has grey listed Turkey over its failure to make sufficient efforts to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.
Some highlights from her speech were as follows:
'Uganda, the Philippines, Syria on the list'
"Turkey is faced with a new crisis every week. Those who say, 'We will make our economy one of the top 10 economies of the world in 2023' have even dropped it off the list of the first 20 economies.
"As a result of this visionary understanding of management, we have been put on a grey list in the end. This grey list has no countries which have the 10 biggest economies of the world. Similarly, it has no countries which have the 20 biggest economies of the world.
"As for the first 30 economies of the world, Turkey is the only country on that list. But who else is on the list?
"Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe and Uganda are on that list. For instance, there is the Philippines, Cambodia, Syria...
"As you see, every country on the list is a success story in its own right. And do you know based on what you are put on the list?
"If there is wide-scale money laundering in your country, terrorist groups obtain funding from your country and you do not struggle against these problems, you are put on the grey list. Just look at his mess. Look at the situation they have put Turkey in. Shame on you.
'No one asks, "Where did you find the money?"'
"What do you think the government has done in the face of this mess? Just as they always do in the face of such situations, they have all together started talking about 'foreign powers'.
"In order to better understand why we have been grey listed, we need to first answer this question. What is the question: 'Is there really money laundering in Turkey?' Yes, unfortunately there is.
To make matters worse, money is laundered by the hand of the state. For instance, if you have money abroad or if you take the money that you earned illegally abroad, you do not have to make efforts to launder this money.
"How? You can make an application for cash repatriation and easily launder this money on a 1-percent commission. I mean, when you pay the 1-percent commission, no one asks you, 'Where did you find this money?'
'You sell drugs? Bring your money over'
"So, in this freaking system, the government says, 'Do you sell drugs? Bring your money over. Are you involved in smuggling? Bring your money over. Did you move your money away from Turkey? Bring it over.'
"'I launder both your money and you on a 1-percent commission.' This is so simple. It is not a bleacher commercial. This is the AKP government...
"Here is the strong Turkey vision of Mr. [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan, who tries to govern a state with the powers of a tribal chief, which has put us on the same list with tribal states in the end. Here is the Partisan Presidential System, which was said to boost the economy!" (AS/SD)