, has accused the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of attempting to stage a “financial coup” against opposition municipalities over their debts and seeking to paralyze their operations, the ANKA news agency reported.){kind=link}
Özgür Özel, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has accused the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of attempting to stage a “financial coup” against opposition municipalities over their debts and seeking to paralyze their operations, the ANKA news agency reported.
Özel’s remarks came during a visit to his party’s provincial office in the western province of Bursa on Friday.
“I call on our nation to be careful and alert about the financial coup attempt against CHP municipalities on orders from the president. …. In order to prevent the mayors you elected from serving you, they are talking about debt collection now, which they have not done for 22 years,” said Özel, vowing to fight the move.
Özel’s frustration stems from the recent remarks made by Erdoğan, who targeted opposition municipalities over their debts, saying the finance ministry is working on a plan to collect the debts and that they will not be allowed to waste the public’s money.
Erdoğan’s call has been interpreted as an attempt to exert financial pressure on opposition municipalities to hinder their operations and discredit them in the eyes of the public in retaliation for his party’s loss in the March 31 local elections.
The CHP emerged as the leading party for the first time in 47 years in the local elections, securing 37.7 percent of the vote, maintaining control of key cities and securing substantial gains in other regions, while Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) came in second, garnering only 35.4 percent. It was the worst election defeat the AKP has suffered since its establishment in 2002.
Özel said the AKP had turned over the municipalities that had the biggest debts to the CHP and are now trying to collect the debts that had accumulated under its rule for years.
Erdoğan said the municipalities can begin to clear their debts by paying their unpaid insurance premiums to the Social Security Institution (SGK).
Following Erdoğan’s call, Labor Minister Vedat Işıkhan announced on Thursday that municipalities, no matter from which party, have already been notified of their amount of debt, through the SGK.
Işıkhan said the municipalities owe a debt of 96 billion lira ($2.9 billion) to the SGK for unpaid insurance premiums and that they should pay it off as soon as possible.
He added that 67.7 percent of this debt is owed by CHP-run cities.
Meanwhile, the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality has released a statement revealing that its debt to the SGK is 2.4 billion lira ($72.7 million), contrary to the 3.3 billion lira announced by Işıkhan.
Former AKP mayors have faced accusations of leaving behind large debts after the March 31 elections.
In many municipalities where the mayorship was transferred from the AKP and its far-right ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), to the other parties, the new mayors have revealed the municipalities’ debts and the lavish spending during the tenure of the former mayors.
The new mayors accused the former AKP and MHP mayors of squandering the public’s money given the fact that even many district municipalities, with populations not exceeding 100,000, have debts amounting to millions of lira.
For instance, the three metropolitan municipalities of Bursa, Balıkesir and Denizli, which were taken over by the CHP from the AKP in the local elections, had an accumulated debt of 789.8 million lira to the SGK from the time of AKP rule in these provinces, the Birgün daily reported on Thursday, citing data from the Court of Accounts.