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against the regime on the street.
Narco traffic headed to Turkey is increasingly in the spotlight. The country has long formed part of a major heroin route and there are claims that its importance is rising both in terms of drug consumption and as a cocaine route.
It is more than a little strange that it is Trade Minister Mehmet Mus, a man seen as in the ‘Pelican’ camp of Berat Albayrak, who is announcing lately intensified drug busts rather than the interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, a rival of Albayrak.
Turkey’s reputation has shifted to that of being a narco-state with recent accusations of it engaging with drug trafficking from Latin America, giving leeway to those who trade in illicit substances and turning a blind eye to their affairs, Erdogan’s ex-economy czar and currently Deva Party chair Ali Babacan said on July 1.
Erdogan extended the sixth “wealth amnesty” law, which would have expired on June 30, by six months until end-2021.
“Independent international institutions should be more vocal about these issues,” an unnamed senior official in Turkey’s finance ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Qatar-based Aljazeera.
“I really stopped counting the number of these amnesties. Enough is enough,” he added.
Unnamed officials of the current administration complaining to foreign media publications about the country’s money laundering “services” add to growing signs of conflict among the gangs that exist under the Erdogan regime.
Erdogan has the right to extend the law by six months one more time.
11 TURKEY Country Report August 2021 www.intellinews.com