Turkey: "Mafyas" at the Bazaar
Turkey has been living intense political and social times for the past two centuries. Its national economy laid for decades on two controversial goods, such as opium and heroin. Its geographical position makes the country a must-through territory for all sort of legal and illegal products from East to West, as well as for millions of migrants. The legacy from the ancient Empire and the influence of modern Islamism. It all suggests that Turkey looks like a peculiar country. A deeper look, however, shows that the country is even more complex.
In the following pages by Italian journalist Matteo Tacconi we discover the dark side of Turkey, on which the underworld and the corrupted part of the State meet and create an octopus whose tentacles prevent democracy and economy from growing: trafficking of heroin and of cocaine, smuggling of migrants and of women, of gold and diamonds, cigarettes and weapons, black-market rents, prostitution, real estate and contracts, cafes, clubs and restaurants, traffic of archaeological finds, gambling, pirated recordings and publishing, space distribution in the bazaars, forging of identity documents and driver’s licenses, money laundering in the tourism, banking and construction sectors, and the ever-untrasparent energy sector are Turkey's biggest businesses today.
Only four years ago the country awoke – again – to find out the fight against the grey zones is still on. A struggle which is fought harshly by State authorities but that demonstrates the disproportionate display of countermeasures in place between the two players. The path towards EU is now smoother than before, but the country has still many answers to give and secrets to unveil.
The present dossier was first published by the Italian monthly magazine Narcomafie in July 2010.
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