Turkey: New debts, old chains
Turkish democratic newspaper Yeni Demokrasi lately reported on a new 5-year cooperation of the World Bank with the old Turkish State, that came into force.
Accordingly, Minister of Treasury and Finance, Mehmet Şimşek, stated that a financial cooperation program for the next 5-year period has been created within the scope of the strong cooperation with the World Bank. The Country Cooperation Framework Program was discussed with the Executive Directors of the Bank and came into force.
It is an important program for Turkey that has now been signed with the World Bank, which will form the basis of the financial and technical cooperation in the period covering the fiscal years from 2024 to 2028. “Within the scope of our strong cooperation with the World Bank the financial cooperation program has been created”, said Şimşek.
This means a further subordination of Turkey mainly to Yankee-imperialism. The World Bank Group functions foremost as a financial instrument for the predominance of the USA. Even though Turkey has a degree of formal independence and the ruling classes in Turkey have their own interests, this development shows again that Turkey will be kept a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country, in which bureaucratic capitalism is developed, dominated mainly by the Yankees.
The external debt is one of the key targets in the democratic revolution, as it is part of the foreign imperialist property, which has to be confiscated alongside their monopolies, companies, banks and all other forms, in order to sweep away all the imperialist oppression, in this case most probably mainly Yankee, and that of any other power or imperialist country
Turkey ranks 3rd in the world and first in its region among the countries that use loans with favorable conditions from the World Bank. The new foreign debt is in line with Turkey’s 12th Development Plan priorities, and its expenditure shall focus on the areas of high and sustainable productivity increase, inclusive services and strengthening employment and resilience, but also in many more sectors such as disaster resilience, energy, green transformation, combating climate change, export support, real sector, infrastructure, logistics, industry, agriculture, education, health and inclusion, and made the following evaluation.
“The impact of the bank’s activities in our country will be increased. The World Bank has been one of the most important stakeholders in achieving our country’s development goals for more than 70 years. The new Country Cooperation Framework further strengthens our partnership with the Bank”, the Minister of Treasury and Finance cheered. Alike did the World Bank: “The framework reflects the strong and growing collaboration between Türkiye and the Group’s institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.”
Humberto Lopez, the World Bank’s country director for Türkiye, hailed the Erdogan regime supposed ‘successes’: “Türkiye has made tremendous progress in the last two decades, significantly raising living standards for its people, developing modern infrastructure, and integrating its economy into the global economy and global value chains. The new CPF will build on this progress and leverage the combined strength of the World Bank Group to support Türkiye as it continues its remarkable development journey. Key areas of future support include the government’s energy transition plan and strategic infrastructure.” Lopez is seemingly somehow into ‘alternative fats’ as he does not acknowledges the severe crisis the Turkish economy suffers with an almost 100 per cent inflation. More likely is that he expresses the joy that Turkey, the AKP and Erdogan are quite well servants to Yankee imperialism. The same are statements from Wiebke Schloemer, director for Türkiye and Central Asia at the International Finance Corporation, or Moritz Nikolaus Nebe, acting director of Economics and Sustainability at the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.
1.5 billion dollars of financing by the World Bank was recently obtained for 3 separate projects. These resources shall be used to ensure Turkey’s energy supply security and to support the ‘green transformation’ process of businesses. Six billion dollars are expected to be provided from IBRD, nine billion dollars from IFC and the MIGA will organize three billion dollars through short-term guarantees, it is anticipated that approximately two-thirds of the financing to be provided within 3 years will be used to develop the private sector. This means the non-State-monopolies, the comprador faction of the bureaucratic bourgeoisie, will benefit to a larger extend, what indicates hints about the character of the ruling AKP government.
