Turkey’s Fight Against Corruption: A Critical Assessment

GTE Commentary (Istituto Affari Internazionali) No. 19, November 2014, 5 p.

by Kıvanç Ulusoy *

This paper analyses the deficiencies in Turkey’s fight against corruption, dramatically revealed by the major corruption scandal which erupted in December 2013. It argues that despite initial improvements in the aftermath of the 2001 financial crisis, Turkey’s anti-corruption policies witnessed a radical backslide due to the neglected implementation of many formal measures that had been adopted previously, the lacking coherency of existing mechanisms of anti-corruption which turned into a serious problem in the current political crisis, and the declining credibility of the EU in Turkey.

Document prepared for the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in the context of the IAI-Istanbul Policy Center-Mercator Foundation project « Turkey, Europe and the World », November 2014.

* Kivanç Ulusoy is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Political Science, Istanbul University.

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