What is Happening in the Turkish Economy?
The politician's agenda does not always intersect with the people's agenda. Even if it is a Pyrrhic Victory, they may not hesitate to waste long years of the country's life for a short-term election victory (!).
The Turkish economy has been unstable for a long time. In fact, every problem in the economy arises as a result of the choices made in politics. Generally, talking about the technical data of the economy does not go beyond the transfer of information that does not have an equivalent in the public. Talking about the economy without understanding the hopelessness experienced by a person who goes to the market and returns home without being able to buy his/her needs, or the anxiety of a pensioner who has to go to the market and choose between his/her needs, means ignoring the social dimension. Because a country's economic well-being cannot be a goal in itself. The state of the economy should be measured by its contribution to the welfare of the people.
The political power comes to power to implement its own policies in the economy as in every field. For this reason, it should be well understood that every step taken and the results that emerge are entirely due to the policy preferences of the government. The governments tend to overlook their own responsibilities for the unfavourable results. The unfavourable developments in the economy are not only shaped by the preferences in economic policy. The economic situation is a result of preferences in many areas such as education policy, production, employment and development policies, which have been shaped over the years.
Spending 290,601,510 USD (1) to build a mosque in Çamlıca is a choice. With this choice, it means that the same amount of resources to be allocated to science, education, employment and production are given up. While others, which are alternative costs, have the potential to contribute to the welfare of the people by increasing their contribution to the GDP of the country over the years, it would not be wrong to say that the Cami preference does not contribute to the welfare of the country and has the potential to reduce welfare with personnel and maintenance costs (2). Even voicing these facts in the social dimension of the issue is like tangoing on a minefield. The facts you are trying to explain may get lost in the foggy darkness of the superstitions created as a justification for your accusation.
What is more interesting is that those who are eager to drown you in a spoonful of water have a lot to say about complaining about the high prices in the markets and grocery stores. While defending the ability of the people they elect to make the choices they wish with the taxes they pay, they do not want to see or hear how those choices destroy their own welfare. Singing lullabies to people who are out of touch with reality to this extent is the speciality of politicians from underdeveloped countries.
In general, scientific options for the right choices in the economy are not unknown miracle solutions. For an economy in crisis, it is very easy to identify the dynamics of that economy and put forward what needs to be done in the short, medium and long term. If you do this, the devastating effects of the crisis will subside within six months at the latest and the people will be able to breathe. However, it is just as difficult to overcome the wall built by politicians. Because the politician's agenda does not always intersect with the people's agenda. They may not hesitate to waste long years of the country's life for a short-term election victory (!). In the end, what they achieve is a Pyrrhic victory and what is left to the people is to believe in a god who will give them the strength to endure despair.
Let us come to the situation in Turkey. Thedeterioration in macroeconomic indicators accelerated in 2016 and especially in 2018, the year in which the system change known as the ‘Presidential Government System’ began to be implemented. Regardless of education and other policy preferences that are decisive in the economy, this is the period when the incompatibility of economic decisions with the realities of the country increased. Both the public resources transferred to companies with unsuitable financial structures through the Credit Guarantee Fund (KGF) and the Currency Protected Deposit (KKM) practices, whose destructive cost to the public will last for many years in order to prevent a dramatic increase in foreign exchange, have further disrupted the already weak balances. When these decisions were taken, of course, economists who love their country made the necessary warnings. But in Turkey, the ‘arrogance of politicians’ ignored these warnings.
The biggest problem is that politicians do not feel responsible for the efficient and effective use of public resources. Unfortunately, it is not possible to regulate this feeling legally. There is no indicator to measure a person's conscience, morality, courtesy, sensitivity and patriotism. I do not know how many countries in the world have a parliament like the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, which is a monumental expression of looking down on its own citizens. All physical and psychological measures have been taken to ensure that you do not consider yourself fit for that place as soon as you approach its doors. Politicians start to act in accordance with the spirit of this place from the moment they are elected and they do not feel uncomfortable with this huge structure and organisation that builds impenetrable walls between them and the masses of the people.
I think that the reasons for the economic crisis we are experiencing can be understood only when the cost of the choices made by the government in the 2023 presidential election and the 2024 local government elections are calculated, even though they do not correspond to the economic reality. But of course, we are also faced with problems that go beyond this. Have you heard that Mehmet Şimşek, who came to Turkey with the claim of managing the crisis, really has a significant proposal for saving in the public sector?
The cost of the President travelling to the NATO meeting with five planes is over 130 million TL. The Football Federation of a country in crisis takes 600 extra people to a tournament and cannot be held to account. The extra burden imposed on the economy by build-operate-transfer model projects with guaranteed payments is 37 billion dollars (3). The cost of the S-400 air defence system, which was shown as a great political success and was purchased and put into storage, is 2.5 billion dollars. In 11 years (until September 2022), 6.8 billion TL was spent on vehicle purchases and 4.8 billion TL on vehicle leasing in the public sector (4). The opposition states that the number of rented buildings in the public sector is quite high. The debates on the public resources transferred to Islamic foundations and associations do not end. How many ATM officers are there in the country and how much salaries are paid to them? There is no one who can answer this question. No one knows how much public funds are illegally and unlawfully paid to officers who were dismissed from the Turkish Armed Forces for reasons of reaction, etc. by this government by giving them the personal rights of retired colonels.
Examples can be multiplied, but it seems economically impossible to explain how an economy can survive in this spiral of extravagance and lack of control. The government, which is aware of this impossibility, continues to increase the wage injustice in the country by putting a finger of honey in everyone's mouth according to the reactions. The government, which sees the increase it made to civil servant pensioners in January as appropriate for other pensioners at the same rate, sees it appropriate to make an injustice of about 5.5% to civil servant pensioners in July 2024. The saddest part of the matter is that the Turkish Nation, which Atatürk saved from being a servant, falls into the naivety of believing that the government gives the increases from its own pocket with the understanding of being a servant, thinking that it does not deserve to be an individual.
Politics in Turkey is partly about being able to market posthumous citizenship services (!) as a favour to the public. If this curiosity for the unknown does not turn into a desire to know something while we are alive, the era of politicians who provide us with public services with high commissions and a lot of money will never end. The TL, which is seen as a ‘carry-trade’ currency for international capital, is not seen as a problem for politicians. Because they have other plans in their glass mansions and there seems to be no deviation in their plans. I wish the Turkish people to realise that prosperity is not the name of a political party and demand it from politicians.
Footnotes
(2) Same source.
(3) https://www.birgun.net/haber/yap-islet-devret-modelinde-37-milyar-dolar-zarar-546208
