Turkey's Corrupt Sports Officials in Cahoots With Its Corrupt Arms Traders?
What does a soccer/football match-fixing scandal in Turkey have to do with the country's arms trade? Well... something, even if it's not clear yet what exactly that might be. But one of Turkey's best defense journalists, Lale Kemal, writes in her column in Today's Zaman that the Ergenekon conspiracy, in which many senior members of the military were alleged to have been plotting a coup against the "Islamist" AKP-run government, may have been getting funding both from corrupt arms sales and from the match-fixing.
Kemal writes that some soccer club members are also local representatives of foreign defense manufacturers, and have been cut out as the AKP government makes a push to import less and produce more of its defense goods.
As the current government has adopted policies to boost the development of local arms, the financial resources of some middleman in the arms business are believed to have fallen.
Early in 2009 a defense industry specialist submitted a thick, confidential file to then-Ergenekon prosecutor Zekeriya Öz. The file contained, among other things, allegations that some Ergenekon suspects might have used resources earned in arms deals to fund the activities of alleged coup plotters. At the time, this defense industry expert filed a complaint with prosecutor Öz's office against the alleged generals and colonels who, he claimed, abused fund revenues earmarked for arms purchases. Öz reportedly launched an investigation over possible links between the arms trade and financial resources that went to Ergenekon activities.
We have not heard since about the fate of this investigation. But I have a deep suspicion about a possible link between the match-fixing investigation and the money earned through the arms trade, with huge sums earned in commissions at the expense of taxpayers.
Anyone who tells you they know what's going on with Ergenekon is lying, so I'm not going to even speculate on what all this might mean. But the possible involvement of foreign arms manufacturers certainly is juicy...
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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