It is easy to enter Turkey, get citizenship and launder money there. For years, it attracted international mafias and bandits, among others those from Serbia and Montenegro. Can the new Minister of Police cope with it?
"My dear nation, today we arrested three internationally wanted gangster bosses in Alanya and Istanbul," Ali Jerlikaja posted on social media on Tuesday.
They are gang leaders of Belgian-British, Vietnamese and Arab origin.
"Regardless of how strong these gangs are and what kind of warrants are issued, we will put an end to them!", the Turkish interior minister belligerently announced.
Since he took office in June, hardly a day has gone by without the arrest of serious criminals. This includes drug dealers, greengrocers, human traffickers, fraudsters and thieves - but also the heads of international gangs that have established themselves in Turkey in recent years.
A little over a month ago, Jerlikaja announced that the Turkish police had arrested the leadership of the globally active criminal group "Comanchero". Among those arrested were several people from Australia and New Zealand wanted by Interpol.
Why Turkey?
Lately, even an ordinary newspaper reader has noticed that something is wrong in Turkey. More shootings, more murders, more reports from investigative journalists.
However, before Jerlikaja took office, there were almost never any serious investigations or criminal charges against these groups.
Former Interior Minister Sulejman Sojlu himself maintained close ties with the mafia. During his tenure, the leading men of the Turkish underground were released from prison, which allowed Turkey to develop into a haven for international criminals, especially from Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, Azerbaijan and Russia.
This is where they wage their wars, as shown by the murder of Jovan Vukotić, a drug lord from the Montenegrin Skaljar clan. Vukotić was killed in Istanbul in September last year.
The investigation revealed that he was killed by a local mafia group for a reward of 1,5 million euros. According to the police, the order came from the rival Kavački clan.
Kavači and Škaljari, two drug clans from Kotor, have been waging a real war in Europe for ten years. So far, around 50 people have been killed in bloody conflicts in several countries.
In response to DW's inquiry, the German Federal Office for the Fight against Crime stated last year that Turkey has been established for some time as a haven for criminal groups from the Balkans.
Raids by Turkish authorities have revealed that such groups operate from Spain to Turkey. Confiscated photos and documents testified to kidnappings, tortures and murders.
Soft laws and golden passports
Experts say that the laws against money laundering are too lenient in Turkey, that the government too often amnesties economic criminals. Then, visa-free entry is possible from many countries, also rich people can quickly become Turkish citizens.
Anyone who invests $500.000 in Turkey or deposits it in a bank account for three years, or who buys real estate for $400.000 can apply for Turkish citizenship.
Kristin Surak from the London School of Economics and Political Science, who wrote a book about these so-called "golden passports", says that annually about fifty thousand people from all over the world get Turkish citizenship this way.
Furkan Sezer, former head of the department for economic crime in the Istanbul police, has been following these processes for years. He says many criminals take citizenship and then bring assets into the country. Often no tax is even paid.
This means that money, whose origin is unknown, enters the legal financial flow.
Ozan Bingol, an expert in tax law, criticizes this practice. "Criminals normally pay 15 to 20 percent of the value for money laundering," he says. But the Turkish government allows them to do this for free. This, in his opinion, opens the door to criminals of all kinds.
Bingol also criticizes that the police do not have enough powers to fight money laundering. "If someone suddenly shows up today with a million dollars, the authorities must not ask where the money came from," he says.
The AKP authorities, the party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, passed that decree two decades ago, as soon as they came to power.
Turkey is on the gray list
The International Institute for Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism FAFT stated that Ankara must take stricter measures against money laundering.
FAFT put the country on the so-called gray list two years ago. Since then, Turkey has been under surveillance. Until the revision of that list next June, Ankara would like to be removed from this unpleasant list because the economy is in trouble anyway.
With the policy of low interest rates, Erdogan pushed the country into a deep crisis. The Turkish lira has been losing value for years, and inflation continues to rise. Recently, the annual rate of price increase was almost 61 percent. Erdogan's meddling in monetary policy and the judiciary has spooked foreign investors.
And the state needs investments. New finance minister Mehmet Šimšek, who took office after elections in May, is trying to attract foreign investors. He often travels abroad, tries to collect fresh money and gain trust.
But in order for it to return, the Minister of Interior Jerlikaja will have to play his role to the end by fighting against organized crime.
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