128$ Billion waste : Major crisis exposes corruption of Erdogan’s party in Turkey

Corruption files of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development Party continue to unfold, the latest of which is Erdogan’s $128 billion waste from the state budget as gifts and rewards to members of his party; in return for their efforts to work for Erdogan and ensure their loyalty to him, ignoring the difficult living conditions of Turks.

Erdoğan claimed, contradicting accounts of the fate of the $128 billion, in a failed attempt to get out of the crisis, first that these funds were spent on tackling the COVID-19 pandemic in support of the affected sectors of the country.

As for Erdoğan’s other account, the $128 billion is in the Turkish Central Bank as it is in foreign-exchange reserves, arguing that Turkey’s foreign-exchange reserves are recovering once again.

The Central Bank of Turkey spent huge amounts of money in foreign currency during the two-year term of Barat Albayrak, the president’s son-in-law, as finance minister, to support the local currency after the Turkish lira lost much of its value against foreign currencies and inflation rose dramatically.

These demands to know the fate of the money lost or spent by Erdoğan as gifts to members of the Justice and Development Party come in conjunction with the economic conditions experienced by the Turks, especially after the negative economic repercussions of the Corona pandemic, which the Erdoğan regime neglected to support the sectors affected by the state, despite wasting the money of his people on his entourage.

And the hashtag “Where’s the $128 billion?” (#128MilyarDolarNerede), Turkey’s Twitter feed, against the backdrop of ongoing controversy in Turkey, over the loss of the Turkish Central Bank’s treasury of $128 billion in foreign exchange stock, during Barat Albayrak’s tenure as former Finance Minister and Erdogan’s son-in-law.

Durman Yilmaz, former president of the Central Bank of Turkey, and Ibrahim Turhan, former vice president of the Bank of Turkey, called for an investigation into the fate of the $128 billion spent without disclosing its disbursements and the exchange rate applied during the sale process.

Turkey’s largest opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, accused the regime of wasting $128 billion, saying that crises in Turkey began to appear largely after the presidential system implemented a “one-man dictatorship” in 2018.

Meanwhile, the Turkish opposition Good Party posted signs and posters in a number of cities and neighborhoods across Turkey carrying the phrase “where is the $128 billion?” and provided 10,000 facepiece with the same phrase to distribute to citizens.

“Those posters and banners about the fate of the $128 billion have left Erdogan’s regime confused, with the Turkish president ordering a security alert and banners scattered across Turkey immediately removing the fate of the billions missing.”

The Turkish parliament, which is controlled by the ruling Justice and Development Party, also rejected an inquiry by the opposition Republican People’s Party into the fate of the money, as well as Turkish troops raiding CHP headquarters to remove posters and banners.

“In April 2020, a World Bank report revealed that nearly 14 percent of Turks were living below the poverty line, estimated at $4.3 per day per person, with Erdoğan’s limited income below the poverty line as inflation continued and the value of the Turkish lira fell.”