Deliberations continued in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) on the Draft Law on Certain Investment Funds Decided to be Liquidated. During speeches on the general scope of the second part of the proposal, opposition deputies voiced their criticisms regarding the grievances caused by the fund crisis and the state of public oversight.
Taking the floor at the General Assembly, which convened under the chairmanship of Deputy Speaker of the Grand National Assembly Tekin Bingöl, Yeni Yol Group Chairman Mehmet Emin Ekmen argued that the gravity of the situation had not been fully grasped. Ekmen claimed that the government was attempting to resolve the process by stalling.
There are not 450 thousand victims, there are at least 7 million victims. The money pocketed through fraud is not limited to 800 billion TL; the loss in value of the Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST) is over 100 billion dollars.
Ekmen directed criticism at a "wealth transfer" through the "highest interest payments in the history of the Republic," the currency-protected deposit program, and invitation-only tenders, evaluating the fund crisis within the same framework.
Just as there is a wealth transfer through the highest interest payments in the history of the Republic, just as a wealth transfer was carried out through the currency-protected deposit program, and just as a wealth transfer is being carried out through invitation-only tenders reaching a 98 percent level, a wealth transfer has also been carried out with the fraud of the century.
CRITICISM OF TRUST AND OVERSIGHT FROM THE OPPOSITION
İYİ Party Balıkesir Deputy Burak Dalgın stated that the crisis could not be explained solely by monetary figures, drawing attention to the situation of citizens who invested their savings in the funds. Dalgın said that the savings of various segments, from retirement bonuses to the cash reserves of SMEs and the down payments of young people wanting to buy homes, had been harmed during this process.
Sharing examples from his meetings with victims, Dalgın expressed that the issue was "not a financial crisis, but a crisis of trust." CHP Niğde Deputy Ömer Fethi Gürer noted that the fund fraud should not be treated as a singular event, stating that the system and oversight mechanisms must be questioned.
Gürer said that citizens turned to funds to evaluate their savings due to economic conditions, and therefore state institutions had a responsibility to manage the process correctly. Gürer also stated that credit card debt had reached 7 trillion 340 billion liras.
DEM Party Ağrı Deputy Heval Bozdağ argued that the government was trying to manage the crisis by removing it from the public agenda. Bozdağ stated that the responsibility of the public institutions conducting oversight had not been clearly established, and that despite resignations and retirement decisions, there had been no political or administrative confrontation.
Recalling that Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek and the Capital Markets Board (SPK) had previously made statements indicating they were aware of the developments, Bozdağ asked, "If you saw it, why didn't you intervene, why did you turn a blind eye to this theft?"
YENİ Party Bursa Deputy Hasan Öztürk also criticized the government by touching upon economic conditions and citizens' savings. Öztürk claimed that the money saved for years by citizens struggling to make a living had been lost through an "organized fund robbery" and stock market manipulations.
After the deputies completed their speeches on the general scope of the second part of the proposal, the assembly moved on to the discussion of the articles of the draft law.
News Source: 12punto
