When an exiled Turkish mob boss made a series of accusations last year against figures linked to the government, including murder and drug trafficking, his claims captivated the public.
But months after posting the first of his online videos, Sedat Peker’s allegations remain to be investigated by any official agency — an indication of the dire state of anti-corruption practices in Turkey, according to experts.
Transparency International, which monitors global corruption, last week reported that Turkey had fallen to 96th of 180 countries in its Corruption Perceptions Index, scoring 38 out of 100 on a scale where a zero score indicates a highly corrupt state. The global average is 43.
Turkey’s decline since 2012 — dropping 11 points — shows it is in “significant decline” in combating corruption, Transparency International said.
A country’s score is taken from at least three data sources from a variety of reputable institutions, such as the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.
“The most important factor of Turkey’s going down in the index so dramatically is that now there is an environment in Turkey enabling corruption and not punishing such incidents,” Transparency’s Turkey chairperson Oya Ozarslan told Al-Monitor.
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