Six months after Cameron’s speech, Lord Mayor Michael Bear visited Turkey together with a thirty-strong business delegation. It was his first major foreign trip of the mayoral year, and he hosted a series of events in Istanbul and Ankara, including a reception in the capital ‘to meet contacts working in the infrastructure and construction sectors and “set the scene” for the discussions focused on opportunities for UK firms’, according to the official report of the Lord Mayor’s visit.
Those opportunities centred around Turkey’s growing public–private partnerships (PPP) sector, the investment model powering the wave of mega-projects that have transformed the country, beyond recognition in many places, and defined the later Erdoğan era. Since the AKP took power, it has built eleven new airports (and fully refurbished as many again), thousands of miles of new roads and railways, and extended a once-minuscule metro system across Istanbul. Erdoğan and his ministers hail these projects as the crowning proof of their success. Their devotees believe them.
The PPP funding model is based on the private finance initiatives – or PFI – dreamt up by the UK’s Conservative government in the 1990s, and brought to full fruition in the Tony Blair era of the 2000s. Private companies are contracted to build and service public assets such as hospitals, schools, waste disposal facilities and roads. The government does not have to pay anything up front, but the state is locked into decades-long payback agreements, under which the taxpayer ends up shelling out many times more than the original construction would have cost due to the high rates of compound interest and non-competitive servicing deals. PFI is a classic example of instant gratification on a grand scale – the government of the day takes credit for the sudden explosion of shiny new public facilities, the debt stays off the books, and the country is left paying for it long after the politicians who signed off on it have retired. In 2015, the UK’s National Audit Office found that PFI projects end up costing the taxpayer more than double what they would if the government borrowed the money directly and built them itself.
In the UK, the PFI model has been largely discredited and abandoned. After the financial crash of 2008, credit lines dried up and so did Britain’s construction boom – and at the same time, the number of new PFI projects fell off a cliff. But as the rich Western economies tightened their belts, global lenders started flooding emerging economies, including Turkey, with cheap money, allowing them to launch their own construction booms, and for their governments to start toying with the PFI model. Companies that had grown rich from PFI projects in the UK started turning their attention overseas, where they marketed themselves as originators and experts in the field. In doing so they were supported by the British government, which through its embassies and consulates promotes the PFI model, the UK as a centre of PFI expertise, and British private companies that can advise on and deliver the projects to foreign governments.
Prior to the Lord Mayor’s visit in 2011, Turkey had signed off on just six PPP projects. By January 2018, it had over two hundred completed or in progress, with a combined value of $135 billion – among the highest of any country in the world. The largest and most expensive of these is also the most recent – the new Istanbul airport, which opened in April 2019 after months of delays.
British companies have done well out of Turkey’s PPP spree – at least partly thanks to the Lord Mayor’s visit. ‘The Lord Mayor met with the Minister of Transportation and Communications, Binali Yıldırım,’ the report notes. ‘He was keen to work with UK firms on implementing key projects focusing on maritime infrastructure (including ports), roads (including highways and interstates), rail (both urban and intercity fast rail), airports and an advanced metro system in Istanbul.’
In the wake of the 2011 visit, Turkey passed a package of PPP laws based on British legislation. Since then, Arup, a major British construction and consultancy firm that hosted the networking reception where Lord Mayor Bear met Yıldırım, has won contracts on scores of Turkish PPP projects including the new Istanbul airport. Ankara launched its £8 billion PPP healthcare scheme in 2014 following a visit, sponsored by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to PFI-funded hospitals in the UK for Turkish ministry of health officials and businesspeople. Mott McDonald, a consultancy firm, was appointed as an adviser on Turkey’s first six hospital PPP projects. In 2015, the Treasury estimated that the scheme would be worth £2.5 billion in contracts to UK firms.
For Turkish taxpayers, Erdoğan’s mega-projects – which he wields constantly as proof of his success – are costly monuments to the vanities of a leader who increasingly has little else to offer. As Erdoğan’s erraticism, domestic crackdowns and foreign misadventures dent both Turkey’s image on the world stage and its economy, these credit-financed projects are turning into his sole plan for sustaining economic growth and keeping his domestic image afloat. His support base, who once venerated him for keeping the rubbish collection going while he was in the Istanbul mayor’s office, now cheer when they hear how his government builds the longest tunnels, the biggest hospitals and the most new roads. So, even in the face of a looming recession and a huge crash in the value of the Turkish lira, Erdoğan is determined to push on. It is unclear where the money might come from; the European and World Banks were once keen to pour money into Turkey’s PPP projects, but the gush of international funding has slowed to a trickle since 2016.
It is certain who benefits as the projects keep coming. Worldwide, five of the six private construction firms with the most government contracts by value in 2018 were Turkish. The top two – Cengiz and Limak Holdings, both of them owned by pro-Erdoğan businessmen – are part of the group that won the contract for the new Istanbul airport. So too is Kalyon Holding, at number five – the conglomerate that owns Turkuvaz Media. Those figures are even more remarkable in the context of Turkey’s global rankings among international contractors. Based on the value of contracts won outside their home country, Turkish firms come way down the list. In 2018 only eight Turkish construction companies made it into the top 100, with Rönesans Construction the highest ranked at number thirty-six. Cengiz Holding, the world’s biggest recipient of government construction contracts, is at 225.
Back in the City of London, the blossoming financial relationship between Turkey and the UK has been sweetened with the kind of glamour and prestige that the Corporation excels in. Amid the crooked alleyways and gleaming glass towers, members of Erdoğan’s circle have received a string of honours, continuing even as he has burned almost every democratic check and balance in his country. In November 2011, the Corporation held a banquet in honour of President Gül during his state visit to the UK. In April 2016, Turkey’s ambassador to Britain, Abdurrahman Bilgiç, was awarded the Freedom of the City of London. It is a title first presented in the thirteenth century to individuals who were recognised masters of their trades, and allowed them privileges including the right to drive sheep across London Bridge and to be hanged with a silk rope if they faced execution. Over the years, it has been opened up: starting in the nineteenth century, you could be awarded the honour ‘by redemption’ if you made a cash donation to the City, and since 1996 foreign nationals can also apply. Bilgiç took advantage of both liberalisations, and was nominated for his honour by Emma Edhem, a British barrister of Turkish-Cypriot descent who has served as a City of London alderman, and had represented Erdoğan in a defamation case against the Daily Telegraph. (The newspaper had claimed that the AKP had taken a $25 million campaign donation from Iran; Erdoğan settled in March 2011 for an undisclosed sum.)
On the evening of 11 September 2018, guests at the Global Donors Forum awards ceremony at Mansion House – the official residence of the Lord Mayor, owned by the City of London Corporation – were startled to see Emine, Erdoğan’s wife, receive an award ‘in recognition of her humanitarian service’. It was given to her, the organisers said, for her championing of Rohyinga refugees who had escaped genocide at the hands of the army in Myanmar – and was well trumpeted in Erdoğan’s tame media back in
Turkey. ‘The true owner of this meaningful award, which I will be honoured to cherish for the rest of my life, is my country, my state and my nation which respond to any cry for help no matter where it comes from and regardless of religion, language or race,’ the first lady gushed as she was handed the solid glass trophy.
Back in Turkey, on the same day, Emine’s husband had appointed himself head of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, where the assets stripped from businesspeople accused of being Gülenists are pooled, and sent his intelligence services to Moldova to seize and extradite Turkish citizens accused of links with the group. In Ankara, a leftist Turkish-Austrian activist had been arrested on terrorism charges, prompting the Austrian government to demand a full explanation from Erdoğan’s government.
A second award at the same event was handed to the Turkish Red Crescent, which describes itself as ‘an auxiliary to the Turkish government’, while Turkish Airlines, which is 49 per cent owned by the Turkish state, was handed the ‘creative philanthropy award’ for its campaign of sending cargo planes loaded with food to Somalia.
While these awards were nominally organised by the Global Donors Forum, which describes itself as ‘the biannual convening of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists’, it was at least partly the brainchild of the City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s charitable fund. Minutes from the Trust’s meeting on 2 May 2018 reveal that its representatives had met with the Global Donors Forum and proposed to host the September event ‘as part of a range of international relationships we are building’.
London’s relationship with Ankara, and its prioritisation of business over human rights and democratic values, is a harbinger of the kind of mercantile foreign policy that the UK will be pursuing in its post-EU era. But it is also a glance into the future, at how all of the old order might be forced to deal with the new. Erdoğan is no longer the only populist in Europe, and Turkey not the only country that was recently deemed to be democratising but is now backsliding. Hungary and Poland, both EU member states, are led by men with autocratic tendencies who have stifled the media and captured the judiciary. The far right is on the rise in Italy, Germany and Spain, while on the periphery of the bloc most of the Balkan states are ruled by nationalists who would be happy to drag their region back to war. Even Britain and the US, cradles of liberal democracy, have been rocked and reshaped by their own brands of populism. Europe is well beyond the point where the forces of illiberalism can be ignored or contained. As the power and influence of the old global centres declines, it is countries like Britain who are on the back foot – growing poorer and weaker and desperate for friends, and so forced to keep taking tea with Erdoğan and his ilk.
Celebrity endorsement and political courting
Since Davutoğlu’s deposition, the Bosphorus Centre has focused on producing coup-themed propaganda, launching social media attacks against critical journalists and academics and, right after the coup attempt, enlisting Hollywood wild child Lindsay Lohan as Erdoğan’s chief celebrity admirer. In the autumn of 2016, Lohan made the first in a series of bizarre appearances in the Turkish media when she visited a refugee camp in Nizip, close to the Syrian border. The camp, which has since been closed, was stunning; the Syrians living there were housed in caravan-style homes with beautifully tended patches of garden often attached. Angela Merkel visited in March 2016 and spoke with the delighted, grateful and handpicked residents. Every foreign dignitary and celebrity who saw Nizip came away chattering about how generous and hospitable the Turkish government is to the refugees it hosts. In many ways that is true, but Nizip was not representative. Less than 10 per cent of the 3.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey live in government-run camps, of which many are squalid, isolated and overcrowded.
Lohan gave interviews to the Turkish press at the Nizip camp, her head swathed in a Turkish-style headscarf, Hilâl Kaplan at her side. ‘[An aid worker] saw that my eyes lit up when I told her that her headscarf is beautiful. She waved to me and said, come with me, I followed her and she gifted it to me. I was so moved and touched by this that I wanted to wear it in appreciation for all of the generosity and love I received from everyone at the camp … We can do more for each other, we should do more for each other. And we can start by giving support to Turkey which did its part in this huge human tragedy called Syria by welcoming three million refugees.’
Next, Lohan met with Erdoğan. In January 2017 she arrived at his palace for an audience with him, his wife Emine, and a little girl from Aleppo who had become famous for her tweets under siege. Lohan posted the pictures on her (now-wiped) Instagram page: ‘What a dream it is for Mr President Erdoğan and The First Lady to invite me to their home. Their efforts in helping Syrian Refugees is truly inspiring.’
Her agent, Scott Carlsen, who was also present at the meeting, posted his own image from the day on his Facebook page: ‘Had the chance to sit down and chat with the president of Turkey and First Lady a week or so back. Feeling very grateful and thankful for the opportunity,’ he captioned it.
Hilâl Kaplan claimed that the Lohan connection had come about by pure chance through a mutual connection, and that the Nizip trip had happened because the actress genuinely wanted to meet refugees. But the arrangement quickly turned into one of mutual benefit for a president struggling with his international reputation and a celebrity with her career on the rocks. Soon after her visit to Nizip, a source inside a soft drinks company for which Lohan is a paid ‘brand ambassador’ told the press they would be donating to refugees for each order placed online. Then Lohan gave an interview at the opening of her new nightclub, Lohan, in the Greek capital Athens. She was bleary-eyed, rambling, and intent on telling the interviewer about her work with refugees.
Most fascinating, though, was her awkward insertion – twice – into the interview of an Erdoğan catchphrase, ‘The world is bigger than five’. It refers to the UN security council’s five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – and the unfair influence the Turkish president believes they wield over the rest of the world. The phrase originated as the brainchild of a group of pro-AKP activists in 2015, and is now repeated by Erdoğan at every opportunity. It is the title of a series that began airing on the state-controlled television channel TRT in September 2017 and ‘deals with global conflicts and crises as new rivalries and alliances are formed as the era of a unipolar world ends’. It is the theme of a tuneless song with a glossy video that features people from the smaller nations, angry that the five make the world’s decisions without them. And it is the title of a book, The Vision of New Turkey: World is Bigger than Five, that Erdoğan often presents to foreign visitors at his palace.
Lohan made plenty of other pro-Erdoğan and AKP comments during her six-month love-in with Turkey, both on her social media accounts and in interviews with Turkey’s pro-government press. Since then, the friendship appears to have gone quiet. When I approached her agent for comment in February 2018 he told me they were ‘not doing interviews at the moment’.
The Bosphorus Centre has also shifted focus to Britain. In December 2017 it brought British Labour MP John Woodcock to Turkey to visit the country’s flagship camp for Syrian refugees and to meet with interior minister Süleyman Soylu. In an interview with Daily Sabah at the end of the trip, Woodcock was pushed to give his views on why Turkey and its fight against Kurdish militancy is so misunderstood in the West. Back in 2015 he had sponsored a Westminster event hosted by the PYD, the political wing of the Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG. Now was his time to repent.
‘I will be painfully honest – I was ignorant back then of the scale of the links between the PYD and PKK. This visit to Turkey has reinforced my new understanding of the reality and I am keen to work with our Turkish allies to spread that understanding in the UK so fewer British parliamentarians make the mistake I did,’ Woodcock said.
Woodcock listed the visit in his register of interests, as is required of every Member of Parliament for al
l earnings, gifts and hospitalities they receive. He estimated the cost of the four-day trip at £3,941.08, all of it covered by the Bosphorus Centre, and recorded the purpose of the visit as ‘[A] fact-finding delegation to meet officials and activists, to learn more about Islamist radicalisation, Isis and Turkey-Syria regional dynamics. Visited camps for internally displaced people.’
Two months afterwards, in late January 2018 – as Turkey was launching a cross-border offensive against the YPG in the Syrian region of Afrin – the centre brought another delegation of British politicians to Turkey for a three-day visit. Lord Stuart Polak, Lord David Trimble, Lord James Arbuthnot and Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones met with ‘politicians, artists and businesspeople’ during their stay. They visited the parliament, which had been bombed by rogue fighter pilots during the 2016 coup attempt. And, for the finale, they met with Erdoğan in his presidential palace.
All filed the trip on the register of interests, but without the estimated value of the hospitality: ‘visit to Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey, 29 January–1 February 2018, to hold meetings with government, political and business leaders and build relations with Turkish civil society and media with view to deepening understanding of Britain-Turkey relations; flights, local transport, food and accommodation provided by local NGO Bosphorus Center for Global Affairs.’
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