Corruption on Turkey's agenda

Especially nowadays. The government prefers to cover up the corruption scandal and employ political rhetoric to distract the public from unaccountable public spending. Recent developments in the country demonstrate that the Turkish public demands not salary increases or a perfect economy, but rule of law, free press, transparency and accountability.

The government started to lose its credibility day by day by making illiberal moves and displaying authoritarian tendencies to an unsatisfied public. The people are waiting for answers on the government's irregular actions, but the government disregards its critics and ignores their questions, and tells those who criticize government policies to take it to the ballot box.

In the last month alone, two distinguished AK Party deputies resigned in protest of the government's decision to close down the prep schools; five deputies started a hunger strike to protest a decision by the Constitutional Court to keep their colleagues in prison; the tax authorities fined Koç Holding companies $100 million (and the real reason for these fines is known to be Koç's support for the Gezi Park protests); the Court of Accounts failed to submit its auditing reports of public spending; the debate on the 2013 budget continues; newspapers revealed that the state continues to profile citizens; Abdullah Öcalan announced his readiness to serve the republic's interests with his international connections and credibility; for the second consecutive year, Turkey was listed as the world's leading jailer of journalists; and the country ranked 154th on the press freedom index published by Reporters Without Borders.

The government used its pro-AK Party media network to cover up and downplay all of the above-mentioned situations.

Turkey is going through a historic period, with three separate corruption and bribery investigations involving the sons of the interior, economy, and environment and urban planning ministers; the mayor of Fatih Municipality in İstanbul; businessmen; the CEO of Halkbank, one of Turkey's public banks; officials; bureaucrats; and advisers of some ministers, with more than 52 allegedly involved in total. On Dec. 17, 2013, they were taken into custody.

Police found $4.5 million in the house of Halkbank's CEO and $1 million in the house of the son of the interior minister. There is, allegedly, a video of him handing over the bribe money.

Turkey's economy immediately reacted to the news of the operation. In the currency exchange market, the dollar and euro gained significantly against the lira, and the stock market lost a lot of value in two days. Tension in the market can be cooled with prudent steps; otherwise, the domestic economy may take serious loses.

After news of the investigation spread, the government interpreted the operation as an attempt to topple it. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “This has both national and international aspects. Some collaborators in the country are cooperating with some international circles to undermine Turkey‘s success. First they tried with the Gezi Park protests to topple us, and now [they're trying] with this dirty operation." Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said, “Just as with Gezi, now in this way they are striving to tarnish the government.”

In taking the operations personally, the government acted recklessly and took steps -- regardless of the dire consequences -- such as intervening in judicial investigations. Instead of trusting in justice, it jeopardized the police and the judiciary. Two additional prosecutors were appointed to supervise the case and the Interior Ministry dismissed nearly 70 police officers in İstanbul and Ankara for misconduct, and a prominent journalist and former deputy Nazlı Ilıcak was fired from the pro-AK Party daily Sabah over comments about the corruption probe. As is typical in Turkish political culture, none of the ministers have resigned yet. These events have already started to cast a shadow on the future of the investigations.

No one trusts or believes in the judiciary in the country; not the politicians, the business class, the press corps or even the lawyers. The prime minister has presented himself as the guarantor of political and economic stability, security and justice. Many have remained highly confident in him as well. But the latest operations and the government's actions have shown that the country needs to trust in its laws, not a single man.

Maybe we cannot find honest politicians, but what we can have are brave prosecutors and police officers; a business class without government ties; upstanding and strong civil society groups; independent media; and conscious citizens that don't buy into manipulative conspiracy theories.

It is important to remember that the people's will is reflected in the ballot box and gives legitimacy to governments. When they feel their government is corrupt, unfair, unaccountable and patronizing, the people judge the government in the court of conscience and then wait for elections. Politicians who are convicted in the court of conscience have taken their place in Turkish political history books.

The government should understand that no one is trying to overthrow it. Unfortunately, the government is obsessed with international conspiracy theories and their domestic connections. People just want rule of law, a new constitution, liberal values, transparency and accountability. Disregarding society's needs can only contribute to its own self-destruction.