The cracks in the foundations that sustain the power of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have started to become visible. The passionate defenses, the silences of those who were silent, the performance all together like a firm fist -because the one moving was not in the photo- have begun to give way to loud desertions, public criticism, leaks of documents that compromise the family of the hitherto all-powerful Turkish leader and his Islamist background. All this in an environment of crisis and economic mismanagement that has placed the Justice and Development Party (AKP) at historic lows of support after almost two decades ruling Turkey. Something that has led an increasingly united opposition to go on the attack.
“I demand that you do not comply with requests that go beyond the law. You cannot shield yourself from having received orders. You are honorable officials of the State, not of the Erdogan family. […] It is the last warning: as of Monday, October 18, all the support you give to this illegal order will be your responsibility ”. This harsh message published on Saturday by the usually restrained leader of the center-left opposition, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, has sent the government into a rage. Erdogan himself has responded that it is a “crime” and a “threat” that seeks the insubordination of officials.
What has motivated this step by the opposition to the attack have been the revelations of the latest scandal affecting the president’s family. Last week, organizational documents of the Turkish Youth Foundation (TÜGVA), of which Bilal Erdogan – the son of the Turkish president – is one of its main leaders, were allegedly leaked to the press by a member of the organization itself. The leaked files – to which MRT has had access – are made up of copies of correspondence with various municipal, provincial and central government authorities, income and expenditure spreadsheets, property records, resumes and lists of members of the foundation to which it is recommended to place in various instances of the State, from the direction of schools to various echelons of the Armed Forces and the Police.
The president of TÜGVA, Enes Eminoglu, initially denied the veracity of the papers and, the next day, acknowledged that “there could be some truth in them”. The foundation was created in 2014 and quickly became one of the most managed student residences in Turkey, largely thanks to the transfer of numerous properties seized from the followers of Fetulá Gülen after the outlawing of this organization as a result of their participation in the attempted coup in 2016. In fact, the opposition accuses TÜGVA of having become a “parallel state structure”, just as the Gülenists were in the past, who sought to infiltrate their members into the Administration to ensure progressive control of decision-making bodies.
Among the papers there are, in addition, several in which it is noted which public institutions pay the expenses of the headquarters of the foundation with the money of the taxpayers and through not very transparent agreements. According to other documents leaked to other journalists, TÜGVA also organized the participation of women members of the foundation or wives of leaders in the local version of the popular contest Who wants to be a millionaire?, which is broadcast on a network owned by a group run by the brother of one of Erdogan’s sons-in-law.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Tamer Özsoy, a former provincial director of TÜGVA, interviewed by the TELE1 channel: “I appeal to the prosecutors in Turkey: prosecute all those responsible, starting with me. This question must be thoroughly investigated ”. According to analyst Murat Yetkin, eThese statements, as well as the leaks themselves, are a way of “getting to safety.” “Upper-middle-level bureaucrats are often the first to feel the winds of change, and may be looking to keep their jobs after a possible change in power,” he writes in his online medium.
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