Then They Came for the Bankers--Not
I don't often jump in to say the media's being unfair to the AKP, but they're more right than wrong on this one.
Yesterday one of Turkey's top bankers, Ersin Özince, the head of İşbank, resigned after getting into a spat with State Minister for the Economy Ali Babacan:
Özince’s statement Thursday came after an exchange of tense words with State Minister Ali Babacan, who earlier this week said the government "does not wish to take police-type measures" against banks that do not limit loan growth. Özince replied Tuesday, saying: “What does he mean by this? I suppose it is about [police] coming and taking us [bankers], like we see in the press. What kind of police-type measures could be imposed against a bank? Isn't this a state of law?"
The words, which were a thinly veiled protest of the recent and controversial arrest of two prominent journalists, appeared to be the main reason behind Thursday’s resignation.
At a press conference Thursday, Özince went even further; when a reporter asked whether government pressure on journalists had moved to bankers, he said, “Yes,” without hesitation.
Now, if Özince resigned in principle to signify his protest against the arrest of journalists, well, that's admirable. But unless there's something that's not being reported here (totally possible--well, probable, actually, this is Turkey), Babacan said that the government does not wish to take police measures against bankers, but does want to limit loan growth.
And no kidding the government wants to put the brakes on loan growth! Turkish bank loans grew 34 percent in 2010. Does that number make warning bells go off in anyone else's head, or is it just me who's been watching the news for the past few years? The current-account deficit is at record highs, with hot money rushing into the country in a way that should freak out anyone who knows about Turkey's historic boom-and-bust cycles.
That they're trying to do something about this--before an election, at that--strikes me as one of the more responsible things I've seen a government do. If you want to fault them here, fault them for the framework they've put in place that has made this kind of credit expansion so attractive to the banks. (But they're not the only government that's done that, as we all know.) Don't fault them for trying to slam the brakes before a train hits the economy.
I'm guessing that in the run-up to the election everyone in Turkey, down to the last apple-vendor, is going to be accused either of being in Ergenekon or of using Ergenekon to intimidate the opposition. If they arrest Özince tomorrow as a suspected Ergenekon conspirator it will speak for itself, but until then, it's actually not time to shout "Then they came for the bankers."
They did, however, come for Ahmet Şık. His book is now available to download, here. So what does it say? Well, it's going to take me a while to read the whole thing, but I note, from skimming it, that it's written in the past tense, which isn't a tense I'd use in my organizational blueprint for overthrowing the government. I use it a lot in journalism, though.
- Comment (2)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments :
Jan '11
Re: Then They Came for the Bankers--Not
When will you have the full translation ready? :)
And in the meantime, is there a good english-language source for Turkish news? I know there are several online newspapers, but I don't know which are useful.
Re: Then They Came for the Bankers--Not
The news center at Turkish Policy Quarterly is a good filter.
It would take me an hour even to translate a paragraph, and I wouldn't feel confident unless I ran the translation by a couple of native speakers for nuance. I'm just trying to basically get a sense of what's in it and why it freaked the prosecutor out as much as it did.