In this report; the economic aspect of the huge crackdown in Turkey at aftermath of the failed coup attempt on 15th July 2016 will be elaborated. Close to 1 million people faced interrogation and further arrest and detentions as a consequence of the totally out of law decoration of Gülen Movement as a “terrorist organization”. Contrary to all legal norms existing, any link to Movement, such as supporting a charity organization or having kids attend to a Gülen Movement affiliated school that is functioning under State Supervision or even subscription to a daily newspaper or downloading an application to phone, have been considered evidences of membership to the terrorist organization.
Lawlessness has reached to such a point that without any due process not only people have been jailed but also all their personal assets have been either frozen or confiscated just due to their links to the Gulen Movement. Turkish Government prefers to use the numbers related to companies confiscated that officially appear as around 8.8 billion euros, but in reality the personal assets and belongings of individuals is estimated to be more than five times of this economic figures as big as 50 billion dollars.
Turkish Government has started confiscating the assets of opposition as early as September 2015, when the police raided and confiscated KOZA Group Holding including a private media center in Istanbul due to a court decision for financially supporting terrorism, herein referring to the support of Group to the Gülen Movement facilities. Indeed, the first and incomplete decision to decorate Gülen Movement as a terrorist organization came as late as May 2016 but the charges and confiscations for financing terrorism started 2 years before this decision showing how far Turkish judiciary has been from impartiality and independence.
The raid and confiscation of another media group; Zaman Media, in March 2016 came also before the coup attempt. The shareholders of Zaman Media Group, faced great pressure and all their assets have been also confiscated just after the coup attempt 15th July 2016.
There have been also confiscation and freezing of personal assets of individuals during the same period with accusations of being a member of terrorist organization etc. in different parts of the country.
Confiscation of wealth and issuing economic fines and isolation to opposition has reached to its sky limits just following the 15th July Coup attempt and has been widely used without even the necessity for court order. The report supplies both the methods used on businesspeople and individual examples who faced the outcomes of this purge.