Erdoğan Lambastes Gezi, Koç, NYT, Rating Agencies

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan did not spare any criticism towards a wide variety of institutions, events and concepts after boasting of his government's achievements while speaking at a High Advisory Council meeting of the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TÜSİAD) in İstanbul on Friday.

Among his targets were The New York Times, the Gezi events of 2013, credit rating agencies, the Hizmet movement, the Koç family and high interest rates.

Beginning his speech, Erdoğan said the most important item on his agenda during his tenure as prime minister, between 2003 and 2014, was the economy. He said the primary reason for the hard-hitting financial crisis of 2001 was that the country had been turned upside down by years of political instability. “There is this cycle that has been consolidated in Turkey that whenever business is good, a coup happens,” said Erdoğan, referring to the three military coups that took place between 1960 and 1980. He said the progress ushered in by former (and Turkey's first democratically elected) Prime Minister Adnan Menderes had been squandered by the 1960 coup, and that the reforms implemented by former President and Prime Minister Turgut Özal beginning in the 1980s were cut short by the 1997 intervention.

The president emphasized the focus that his government held on developing. “When we came to power we worked to break this cycle. We said ‘everyone will win.' Our most important goal was to bring development together with justice. There were abandoned, forgotten regions. It became our goal to rejuvenate a 780,000 square-kilometer area. We lowered interest rates for farmers and small businessmen,” he said, recalling that Turkey's overall growth rate between 2003-2013 was five percent.

He said the Gezi protests of last summer resembled recent unrest that shook Ukraine, Syria and Egypt, insinuating that the protests amounted to a coup attempt. He also took aim at a recent report in The New York Times about the Hacıbayram neighborhood of Ankara, which has allegedly been a source of recruits to the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The report featured a photo of Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu exiting a mosque in Hacıbayram, prompting pro-government media outlets to claim that the NYT report was implying that Ankara supports ISIL. NYT journalist Ceylan Yeğinsu has come under attack by pro-government media for the report, who have published her photo. However, Yeğinsu tweeted on Wednesday that she was not responsible for the photo or its accompanying caption.

Recalling leaked recorded phone conversations allegedly of prominent businessman Mustafa Koç, Erdoğan said those who have been criticizing the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government have not even said a single word about "the pineapple issue." Erdoğan also added that those who have been criticizing the government do not comment on "the rosary and refinery issues," a comment ostensibly directed at Koç.

In one of the illegally recorded phone conversations, Mustafa Günay, the secretary-general of the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), is heard telling Fethullah Gülen that he had sent Ugandan pineapples to businessmen, including Koç, as gifts. Günay was also consulting Gülen about a tender for a refinery in that country, saying a Turkish company -- Koç Holding, if possible -- should enter it.

Erdoğan also criticized credit rating agencies over their assessments of economies, saying those agencies have been carrying out a perception operation. He stated that the rating agencies have been evaluating countries for political reasons. Mentioning the growth rate of Germany, Erdoğan said the Turkish economy has grown by 2 percent this year, a rate that is significantly higher than Germany's rate of 0.8 percent.

He claimed that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) secretary-general told him not to consider the agency's ratings. Instead, Erdoğan added, Turkey needs to take notice of the OECD's assessments. Erdoğan also said whatever the agencies have said so far, Turkey has already implemented. He also underlined the importance of the rule of law for an economy, saying investors do not have any interest in a country where the law does not dispense justice.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)