Corruption Level in Turkey Most Probably Will Increase in 2017 as Well

• 01.27.2017, 14:54
•  Region,  World

Leon J. Williams

The level of corruption in Turkey has increased in 2016. This is seen in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index of 2016. Turkey has ranked 75th – the same rank as Tunisia and Kuwait. It should be mentioned that compared to 2015 Turkey has fallen nine places.

Oya Özarslan, the head of Transparency International’s Turkey branch, stated that Turkey’s decreasing rank was caused by the government’s stagnating efforts in the fight against the corruption, disregarding of the warnings of national and international institutions on the issue, further distancing itself from the mentality of transparency and inclusive administration, and institutional erosion, Hurriyet informs. 

This kind of regress in the level of corruption in Turkey is of no surprise. In 2016 Turkish authorities were conducting a policy typical to totalitarian regime. If several years ago Turkey was imitating to be implementing reforms for the democratization of the country, in 2016 this imitation also ended. Especially after the military coup attempt Erdogan received quite good basis for taking away from his way all those who were hindering or were potential obstacles for him to fulfill his goals. Of course, it is of no secret that corruption has played a great role in this processes.

Taking into consideration what policy Erdogan pursued during Parliamentary system, Presidential system, if adopted, will give more levers to Erdogan to continue and develop this policy. In this regard, of course, to predict that in 2017 decrease in the level of corruption will be recorded would be illogical.