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TheMindfulnessShaman t1_ja0iag9 wrote

Turkey hasn't has had a free press, let alone the ability for anyone to speak freely without repercussions, since Erdogan used "the coup" as an excuse to become Sultan of Turkanistan (which no doubt offends Turkmenistan's dictatorship).

This earthquake will be his "delay elections" card and he will further use it (like he uses the Turkish people and economy) to favor himself and his family's fortunes and further keep Russia's potential victims out of NATO.

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Expensive_Use_5453 t1_ja1yo8z wrote

They were testing the public opinion on delaying the elections right after the earthquake. A former government politician Bülent Arınç made a statement that even though the constitution doesn't allow for delaying the elections it should be considered. He even went so far as to say "What, is it written in the holy scriptures that elections can't be delayed?" for which people mocked him on social media because, you know, constitution>quran.

Anyway they quickly back pedaled on postponing elections now they see that as how much this earthquake is going to effect the country in the long term is becoming clear. Out of 14 million people that were affected by the destruction, more than 3 million have already relocated to other cities. Unemployment which was already significant is going to go through the roof. The government has spent all emergency funds that were supposed to be in place for such emergencies on useless constructions megaprojects to enrich their cronies.

Turkey had 40 billion USD of taxes collected for earthquake response, the fund is empty. There was 24 billion USD of mandatory unemployment insurance collected, was reallocated to the "Turkish Wealth Fund" which is directly under Erdogan's control and is exempt from state oversight, and spent. Central Bank of Turkey had 128 billion USD of emergency funds, was spent by Erdogan's son in law Berak Albayrak to try and keep the value of the Lira up (USDTRY went down from 2.80 to 18.87).

They've been selling assets of the country as fast as they can to get cash flow in. Since this is being done through the wealth fund it's not even possible to say just how much they've sold off so far. It wasn't enough so they started allowing "dirty" money to enter the country's banking system. Which is why Turkey has been put in the grey list.

Long story short, since around 2008 the government has no idea what they're doing, they keep trying to save the day, with no underlying plan for medium to long term strategy; and we're fucked.

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