Turkey: Honouring a Basketball Team With People's Taxes

Ali Yenidunya With A US Player Who Did Not Receive His Tax MoneyLast week, Turkey's basketball team reached the final of the 2010 World Championship. After the Turks hammered Serbia in the semi-finals, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan --- a day before the referendum on 26 amendments to the Constitution ---- announced that 1.5 million Turkish Lira ($1 Million) would be given to the team due to its success. The total amount of 28 million TL ($18.7 million) promised by the head of Turkey was handed over in a cheque to the captain of the team, Hidayet Turkoglu, a member of the Phoenix Suns in the US National Basketball Association.

So how did Erdogan find the cash at a time when the Turkish government is borrowing 150,1 billion TL ($100 billion) in 2009, repaying 50 billion TL in interest? As of February 2010, the Treasury’s total debt was 452,7 billion TL ($303 billion)

Hmm.... How can a Prime Minister, who proposed to the public the prohibition of any distinction between white-collar and blue-collar workers --- we are all employees --- give the money of the employees, as if it is his own, to a basketball team? And how does that fulfil the Constitution being considered in a referendum on the next day?

An admission, dear reader: in the final match, I belonged to the very small minority in Turkey who supported the USA with all of our hearts. And our wallets --- can you imagine the debt/tax burden if Turkey had won the cup?