Sharing his assessments on the February 28 process, Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MÜSİAD) President Abdurrahman Kaan said that the main aim of all coups, whether military or civilian, is the transfer of resources, wealth and income.
Kaan said, "The coup experienced on 28 February 1997 is also directly related to the bank plundering and corruption that increased in the following years, and this process was the main factor that dragged the Turkish economy into the major economic crisis it would experience in 2001."
Talking about the fall in the growth rate of the Turkish economy in the following years, Kaan said, "While our national income was USD 201.6 billion in 2000, it declined to USD 144.6 billion in 2001, and thus there was a loss of USD 57.2 billion in national income."
Noting that the most obvious effect of February 28 on the Turkish economy was on the financial sector, Kaan reported that a total of 25 banks were transferred to the TMSF in the years 1994-2003, that 20 of these occurred between 1997 and 2002, and that the loss from the transfer of these seized banks to the fund was USD 17.3 billion.
Stating that on average 2 percent of national income can be obtained in the annual capital inflow amount, Kaan made the following statement: "In the years 1997-2000, approximately USD 20 billion of net foreign direct capital inflow could have come to Türkiye. However, the capital inflow undermined by the February 28 process materialized at a level of only USD 3.5 billion in this period. Thus, the effect of the process on foreign capital inflow was USD 17 billion."
"Its damage to the economy exceeded USD 250 million"
Stating that the uncertainty created by political instability also increased the public imbalance, Abdurrahman Kaan said that the rise in interest rates destabilized growth on the one hand and, on the other hand, prevented resources from being directed to investments and caused the rent economy to develop.
Stating that the Turkish people suffered the greatest harm from this rent economy, Kaan emphasized that per capita income, which was at the level of USD 4 thousand before the military intervention, could only exceed this level in 2003, and that the country's economy was put into at least 6 years of turbulence.
Kaan used the following expressions: "Although the results of the research conducted today on the economic effects of the period in question differ, it is estimated that the probable economic effects of February 28 are above USD 250 billion. In this context, it is evident that all the perpetrators of the coup, on both the military and the civilian wing, inflicted very heavy damage on the Turkish economy at the point of the transfer of resources, wealth and income."