Turkey has frozen the assets of 62 people and 20 organizations under Law No. 6415 on the Prevention of the Financing of Terrorism, the Gazete Duvar news website reported on Wednesday.
The decision, which was signed by Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek and published in the Official Gazette on Wednesday, includes people and organizations suspected of financing the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
According to the Official Gazette, the legal entities with frozen assets operate in Austria, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Italy, Norway, Iraq, Syria, Germany and Australia.
The PKK, which has been waging a bloody campaign in Turkey’s Southeast since 1984, is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community.
The move is considered an attempt by the government to get Turkey taken off the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list.
The FATF placed Turkey on its grey list of countries in 2021 under increased monitoring due to strategic deficiencies in their regimes to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, a move that came as foreign investment in the country was already close to the lowest level reached during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s 20 years at the helm and was likely to further affect Turkey’s already limited ability to attract crucial foreign capital.
The FATF, which was established by the G7 group of advanced economies to protect the global financial system, had warned Turkey over “serious shortcomings,” including the need to improve measures to freeze assets linked to terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in 2019.