Turkey's struggle with money laundering and financing terror


Turkey has finalized preparations to host the G20 Summit in Antalya in mid-November. As this year's G20 president, Turkey will endeavor to address the problems faced by developing countries and the oppressed during the summit in an attempt to eliminate disparities that are to the detriment of the poor. One of the major topics of the summit is corruption, which has so far been addressed as a prevailing systemic problem especially in southern and eastern countries in all G20 summits. Developments that took place before and after the 2008 financial crisis indicate that corruption is a problem that emanates from developed countries and escalates into a systemic one. Today, many financial monopolies, which threat the system like a ticking bomb, go against market conditions, hamper access to the market, launder money and finance terrorism. For instance, there are many monopolies that are directly or indirectly run by the Gülenist Terror Organization (FETÖ) and finance terrorism in Turkey. Unfortunately, such groups have failed to be unearthed so far. However, the Turkish state has declared terror and the financing of terror as a systemic problem and is maintaining its legal fight against such structures. The prosecution office takes measures to make financial enterprises of this organization function in market conditions. Such enterprises, which launder money, defraud small investors and finance terrorism, pose a big problem not only for Turkey but for the whole system. Today, FETÖ launders money through its operations in a number of sectors, including education, media and mining. For instance, it launders money by presenting un-extracted gold as if it were extracted in its gold mines. In short, the organization converts the money that it collects through illegal means into gold and makes that gold look like being extracted from its gold mines. The prosecution office is launching major investigations into the matter and I am sure that Turkey and its judicial system will set an important example in this regard. Turkey's struggle with the Gülenist group is indeed a fight for the creation of an efficient market mechanism. A legal superstructure must be established to allow this market to function in an efficient way without being implicated in corruption. It should be noted that the efficient functioning of markets is only possible with a market structuring that prioritizes a free distribution mechanism through anti-monopolistic regulations. The institutions formed by developed countries continuously complain about corruption and bureaucratic shortcomings in developing and underdeveloped countries. Corruption cannot be considered as a result of operational and bureaucratic weakness. This is because corruption scandals that have been unveiled in developed countries since 2008 indicate that corruption is a systemic question. Throughout the 20th century, all monopolistic structures in the West, including arms monopolies and criminal industries such as tobacco, carried out all their businesses in developing countries through the bureaucracy that they seized with bribery. And FETÖ is the Turkey affiliate of such a criminal structure.We need to bring up a much more comprehensive vision that will pave the way for systemic renewal and lead to a discussion of civilization. In his "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World," British historian Niall Ferguson asks, "Angry that the world is so unfair? Infuriated by fat-cat capitalists and billion-bonus bankers. Baffled by the yawning chasm between the Haves, the Have-nots - and the Have-yachts? You are not alone. Throughout the history of Western civilization, there has been a recurrent hostility to finance and financiers, rooted in the idea that those who make their living from lending money are somehow parasitical on the 'real' economic activities of agriculture and manufacturing." I think Ferguson is right in these statements. The history of capitalism is characterized by crises in which banking and finance systems have a visible part. As a result of crises, the lender minority always grows richer and the borrower majority always grows poorer. If they do not have a state power behind them, such corruption scandals come to light rapidly. However, it might become impossible to unveil them if there is state power behind them. FETÖ, which abused the state to cloak such corruptions, has an organization structure that is like a cancerous chain of cells that proliferate by stimulating each other. Certainly, illegal structures, which are based on armed force and seize some echelons in the state, are an indispensable part of this chain. FETÖ is a structure of this kind. This being the case, the G20 summit must address Turkey's struggle with this organization that finances terror and launders money in Turkey as an economic and legal case.