Sharing his assessments regarding the February 28 process, President of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MÜSİAD) Abdurrahman Kaan said that the main purpose of all coups, whether military or civilian, is the transfer of resources, wealth and income.

Kaan said, "The coup that took place on 28 February 1997 is also directly related to the bank plunderings 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."

Mentioning that the growth rate in the Turkish economy declined in the following years, Kaan said, "While our national income was USD 201.6 billion in 2000, it fell 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 evident 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 between 1994 and 2003, that 20 of these took place between 1997 and 2002, and that the transfer loss of these seized banks to the fund was USD 17.3 billion.

Expressing that on average 2 percent of national income can be taken as the annual capital inflow amount, Kaan made the statement, "Between 1997 and 2000, approximately USD 20 billion in net foreign direct investment inflow could have come to Türkiye. However, the capital inflow undermined by the February 28 process materialized at 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, prevented resources from being directed to investments and caused the rent economy to develop.

Expressing that it was the Turkish people who 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 pushed into turbulence lasting at least 6 years.

Kaan used the following expressions: "Although the results of the studies conducted today on the economic effects of the period in question differ, the probable economic effects of February 28 are estimated to be over USD 250 billion. In this context, it is evident that all the perpetrators of the coup, whether on the military or the civilian wing, inflicted quite heavy damage on the Turkish economy in terms of the transfer of resources, wealth and income."