Page 47 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine October 2024

bne October 2024 Southeast Europe I 47
“The EU remains our core partner in terms of trade investments, tourism flows ... so we remain focused [on the EU], but that doesn’t mean we do not look at alternatives if they present value,” he told the forum.
Asli Aydintasbas, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center on the United States and Europe, this week told VOA Mandarin that “Turkey’s BRICS bid is one more example of the country’s drift away from the Transatlantic community”.
“BRICS membership may not mean much in practical terms and Turkey is still keen to retain its Nato membership. But it is gradually, inch-by-inch, drifting from the West – and that requires greater strategic thinking on the part of US and other Nato allies, given Turkey’s regional heft and geographic location. Is this an outcome we want?” said Aydintasbas.
Earlier this week, Turkey’s move for BRICS membership hit a bump in the road when Russian economist Sergey Glazyev expressed opposition to it joining, arguing that Erdogan’s stance that Russia should return annexed Crimea to Ukraine is “unacceptable”.
Last week, Erdogan was reported
by Turkey’s state-run news provider Anadolu Agency as affirming in a video message to the Fourth Crimea Platform Leaders Summit held on September 11 that the "return of Crimea to Ukraine is a requirement of international law."
Prior to his reaction to Erdogan’s comments on Crimea, Glazyev published an article titled “Türkiye has no place in BRICS.”
In it, he said that in this period when the world economy is shifting to Southeast Asia, Russia is searching for allies further afield in Asia. Turkey and Azerbaijan, he said, were ideologically weak.
He said Moscow should even consider breaking off diplomatic relations with Turkey if Erdogan did not withdraw his comments on Crimea.
Erdogan’s lavish Ankara, summer and winter palaces sting Turkish taxpayer for three billion lira
Akin Nazli in Belgrade
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has spent as much as Turkish lira (TRY) 3.3bn on building three palaces for himself, according to a Turkish daily.
Birgun newspaper reported on the cost to the public purse as Erdogan ordered the building of the Ankara presidential palace, a summer palace and a winter palace.
Converting the expenditure using the current exchange rate of 1 USD = TRY 34, the sum spent on the three palaces equals $97mn.
However, when the construction of Erdogan’s first palace, located in Ankara’s Bestepe district, kicked off in 2012, the exchange rate stood below TRY 2.0. The rate rose above the 2.0-level when Erdogan moved into the palace in 2014.
Turkey’s strongman in 2015 launched, and lost, a legal action after a furore over whether his Ankara palace has gold-plated toilet seats. His lawyers pursued what they said were baseless allegations made by the then Republican People's Party (CHP) chief, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Kilicdaroglu contended that he only made comments that were intended as a general criticism of officials' lavish lifestyles.
The Bestepe palace was built on a land plot within Ataturk Orman Ciftligi (AOC, or Ataturk Forest Farm), established at the request of the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in 1925.
It has more than 1,000 rooms and officially cost TRY 1.37bn. The opposition, however, has claimed a total of TRY 4.86 has actually been spent on the palace.
You can take a virtual tour in the Bestepe palace here.
Erdogan’s summer palace is on Okluk bay in the town of Marmaris in Mugla province on the southern Aegean coast. The cost of the Okluk palace, which has more than 300 rooms, was updated to TRY 725mn in the 2024 Presidential Investment Programme from TRY 686mn in the 2023 programme.
The construction of the Okluk palace started in April 2017, when the USD/TRY rate stood in the 3.00s. The exchange rate stood in the 5.00s when the palace was opened in 2019.
Media reports have outlined claims that sand from Lake Salda was transported to Okluk for use in improving the palace beach. Lake Salda, located in Isparta province, neighbouring Mugla, was a wonder of nature. Not anymore.
Finally, Erdogan built a winter palace in the town of Ahlat in the eastern province of Bitlis. The construction of the landmark was launched in 2019. The palace opened in 2020.
The cost of the Ahlat palace, the creation of which is scheduled for completion in 2026, has been updated to TRY 1.22bn.
www.bne.eu