Financially powerful friends of the Turkish president are making escape plans from Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the event of his electoral defeat, as he writes in Nordic Monitor self-exiled in Stockholm Abdullah Bozkurt.
According to the publication, they have been leaking for the past few months. rumors in Turkey, that relatives, businessmen and political associates of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acquired real estate and obtained residence permits in other countries in order to transfer part of their wealth abroad through offshore accounts.
Greece, Spain, Portugal and Montenegro are mentioned as safe havens for Erdogan’s friends who have enriched themselves by embezzling funds or taking bribes. According to the same publication, some have already sent their relatives to the US to get them residence permits, while others have made similar preparations in Qatar, ruled by Erdogan’s ally the al-Thani family.
Secret ban on leaving the country
“To prevent their escape, the Erdogan government reportedly placed a covert travel ban on some 1,000 people who have been working closely with the regime for years. The Turkish president fears that if these people move abroad, they may expose dirty dealings. in which they have been involved if pressed,” the report says.
“In recent years, many Erdogan supporters have benefited from Portugal’s Golden Visa program, placing Turkey third among countries from which they have applied for residence visas, after China and Brazil. Statistics show that 547 Turks obtained a residence permit between 2012 and 2023 in Portugal. The number does not include their relatives, who were automatically eligible for residence permits.”
“Similarly, in Greece, the Turks are following the Chinese in obtaining residence permits through investment projects under a similar Golden Visa program. Between 2014 and 2022, 631 Turks became residents according to the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum. Although most of these countries have amended their laws and regulations to restrict Golden Visa programs or have made it more difficult for applicants to obtain them, efforts to obtain such visas from Turkey are reportedly continuing.”
“Some of the people who have been revealed to have invested in real estate in other countries include the foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who allegedly has secret assets in the UK. She has a luxury apartment at Camellia House in the Vista Chelsea Bridge complex, valued at nearly £1.5m.
“The disclosure was made by Muhammed Yakut, a convicted criminal and organized crime figure who had worked for the Erdogan government and had close ties to senior government officials. Yakut turned against Erdogan and began making revelations from exile in Germany, as he claims that he suffered financial losses and was unfairly expelled from businesses in which he was involved.”
As he argues, “Cavousoglu acquired it property in the UK courtesy of Metin Güneş, a member of organized crime who also has an apartment in the same luxury London complex. Çavuşoğlu named Günes an honorary adviser for Haiti and granted him diplomatic privileges in exchange for obtaining the apartment,” reports the nordic monitor.
According to the publication, another person, Mr. HakanFidan, head of Turkey’s MIT intelligence agency, he implemented his escape plan, sending his son Halit Fidan to the US to explore residency options.
According to the Nordic Monitor, “the Fidan family got rich in Turkey mainly by selling imported products to MIT without bidding. Fidan and his son were protected from legal problems by the Erdogan government.” His case is similar former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, confidant of President Erdoğan, and his sons Erkam Yıldırım and Bülent Yıldırım. “The family’s fleet is allegedly used to smuggle drugs from Latin America to Europe and the Middle East. They have billions of dollars in assets hidden abroad and reside in foreign countries, ready to leave Turkey if Erdogan is overthrown in the elections,” the post reads. states, among other things.
A senior official from Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) who has been granted a foreign residence permit is Zehra Taskesenlioğluthat he moved part of his assets to Greece, where he bought real estate.