Turkey Home | Global Integrity

Global Integrity Report: Turkey - 2010

This peer-reviewed country report includes:

Integrity Indicators Scorecard: Scores, scoring criteria, commentary, references, and peer review perspectives for more than 300 Integrity Indicators.

Reporter's Notebook: An on-the-ground look at corruption and integrity from a leading local journalist.

Corruption Timeline: Ten years of political context to today's corruption and integrity issues.

HIGHLIghts

Turkey’s overall performance has not changed since Global Integrity's previous assessment. The country has an independent and effective anti-corruption agency. Turkey scores high on the implementation of procurement and privatization regulations. Its supreme audit institution and tax collection agency is well-staffed and funded. However, significant challenges and obstacles remain. Turkey has very strong immunity regulations for leading public officials, which make it impossible to hold them legally accountable for their actions. Asset disclosure records of officials are unavailable to the public and whistle-blower protections are virtually non-existent. Journalists investigating corruption face intimidation and harassment with one fatality occurring over the reporting period. A national ombudsman or equivalent institution does not exist despite being envisaged in the country’s constitution. Tax evasion is prevalent throughout society.

From the Reporter's Notebooks: In an August 2008 speech, (Prime Minister Erdogan) threatened DMG by saying, “We will speak the language that you understand.” That “language” came in September 2009 when media magnate Aydin Dogan was slapped with a huge fine for alleged tax fraud. With accrued interest, the fine stands at US$3.7 billion… Dogan’s biggest rival in the media, the Sabah-ATV group, is owned by a government-friendly company, Calik Holding. Its CEO is Erdogan’s son-in-law, Berat Albayrak.

Report Home Notebooks Home Methodology Findings Press Room Downloads

The Global Integrity Report is an essential guide to anti-corruption institutions and mechanisms around the world, intended to help policymakers, advocates, journalists and citizens identify and anticipate the areas where corruption is more likely to occur.

The Report evaluates both anti-corruption legal frameworks and the practical implementation and enforcement of those frameworks, and takes a close look at whether citizen can effectively access and use anti-corruption safeguards.

The Report is prepared by local researchers, journalists and academics using a double-blind peer review process. More than 1,000 local contributors have participated in preparing the Report since 2004.

Each country assessment contained in the Global Integrity Report comprises two core elements: a qualitative Reporter's Notebook and a quantitative Integrity Indicators scorecard.

An Integrity Indicators scorecard assesses the existence, effectiveness, and citizen access to key governance and anti-corruption mechanisms through 320 actionable indicators.

They are scored by a lead in-country researcher and blindly reviewed by a panel of peer reviewers, a mix of other in-country experts as well as outside experts. Reporter's Notebooks are reported and written by in-country journalists and blindly reviewed by the same peer review panel.

The insights from the close to a million words of text and 10,000 data points of each year’s Report help shape evidence-based policy reforms that can promote open and accountable government.

Report update alert email
Follow on Twitter
Updates via Facebook