Perhaps putting the leaders of Turkey’s top business association through a televised ‘perp walk’ is not the best way for a country that remains in the throes of an economic crisis to attract foreign investment.

The point was quickly seized on by opposition leader Ozgur Ozel on February 20 when Orhan Turan and Omer Aras—chairman and advisory council head of the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (Tusiad), respectively—found themselves enduring the very public ordeal at Istanbul’s main courthouse after angering President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with state-of-the-nation criticisms of his administration.

Ozel mockingly said Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, a former Merrill Lynch economist who regularly travels abroad to reassure investors on Turkey’s new quest for economic soundness and stability, could now simplify his presentations.

“He might as well reduce his presentation to a single slide,” Ozel said at a press conference, as reported by Velev. “He can show the photo of the Tusiad chairman being held by two police officers and say, ‘This is how favourable the investment environment in Turkey is.’”

Turan and Aras—also a veteran banker who is chairman of Qatari QNB's Turkish banking unit—launched a rare Tusiad attack on the government at their business group’s annual general assembly on February 13. Their remarks on the rotten state of the economy, the lack of rule of law and deficiencies in democracy in Turkey met with a withering response from Erdogan, who hit back in a February 19 speech to lawmakers of his ruling AKP party in parliament, saying the pair were meddling in politics and undermining the government.

Turan and Aras were taken into custody on accusations of “attempting to influence judiciary” and “publicly spreading false information.”

At the courthouse, they were led by their arms by police to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, where they were questioned for hours and released subject to foreign travel bans.

Part of Turan’s reaction to the experience was the kind of practical response that you might expect from a businessman, who noted that his ability to travel was crucial to the export side of his business. “I frequently travel internationally, often accompanying our minister of trade,” he said. “My address is known, I am a businessman. I request the rejection of the prosecutor’s request for a judicial supervision measure banning me from leaving the country.”

For his part, Aras, insisted that his speech had been misrepresented, saying: “I was trying to express the general concerns of society. I discussed topics such as education policies, the rule of law, economic measures and women’s rights. I did not provide any misleading information in my speech.”

Aras was placed under investigation the day after his speech. In one part of his address to the annual gathering, he said: “Elected mayors are being removed from office and replaced with trustees. A political party leader is first subjected to an investigation and then arrested on different charges. A mayor is investigated just minutes after making a speech. Journalists who publish expert opinions are detained, and their editor-in-chief is arrested. Newly graduated lieutenants are expelled from the military. This rapid succession of incidents has created anxiety and undermined trust in society.”

Prosecutors are reportedly arguing that the remarks of Aras and Turan have the potential to disrupt public order.

In further comments, Ozel warned that such incidents as the ‘perp walk’ and investigations would only worsen Turkey’s economic troubles. “That photo is probably the last thing Mehmet Simsek would want to be associated with,” he said. “No one wants to invest in a country where there is no legal security, no property security and no freedom of expression.”

Tusiad in a statement put out on February 19 reaffirmed its commitment to democracy and the rule of law and said: “Sustainable economic development is only possible with the rule of law that embraces a participatory democracy based on human rights.”

The speeches given by Aras and Turan at the Tusiad assembly and Erdogan's subsequent lashing out at the two businessmen have been endlessly debated on Turkish television in recent days (Credit: Soczu Television, screenshot). 

In his speech hitting out at the two Tusiad leaders, Erdogan said the business association had "overstepped" and described it as a remnant of the past that under previous administrations once thrived on economic privilege and political influence, Reuters reported.

"Tusiad’s mentality is a symbol of weak governments in Turkey's past [and it is] full of businessmen who have grown under the shadow of unfair profits and privileges at the expense of the nation," Erdogan added.

Erdogan’s remarks on businessmen who have exploited unfair profits and privileges to the nation’s detriment will, however, certainly not impress some critics—bne IntelliNews has regularly reported on how Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the former leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), dubs the Erdogan-affiliated leading group of Turkish contractors the “Gang of five”. There are actually more than five such contractors but Kilicdaroglu’s term has become a common idiom in Turkey for all the businessmen thought to be part of the group.