PNN – Statistics show that President Erdoğan’s protection has more than doubled in one year and reached astronomical figures.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, many Turkish media once again went to the strange expenses and astronomical figures of the president’s protection team. In a situation where Turkey is in an economic crisis and every US dollar is worth 29 lira and inflation has reached an unprecedented level, in addition to the expenses of the luxurious management of the presidential palace, the cost of the security team has also increased drastically.
Turkish media have repeatedly criticized the strange expenses of the presidential palace and the use of several wide-body airplanes and dozens of luxury and expensive cars in this country, but Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself has declared that “where there is talk of credibility and prestige If the country is involved, the cost is not important.”
The cost of one day of protection is equivalent to the monthly salary of 313 people
Press and media critical of the government have used the government’s own official documents to criticize the back-breaking expenses of the president’s protection team and had no hidden source.
In the special report of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, instead of the usual term “guardian team”, it is mentioned “the expenses of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s protective army”.
This report writes: “The cost of protecting the Turkish president is increasing day by day. According to the official documents of the General Directorate of Security under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior, the expenses of the first 9 months of 2023 for the Presidential Protection Department have reached 800 million and 683 thousand liras. This is despite the fact that in the same period last year, i.e. in the first 9 months of 2022, this figure was 389 million and 314 thousand liras. So we are facing a strange 100 percent increase.”
In order to have a clear understanding of these numbers, we must point out that millions of Turkish citizens live on a monthly income known as “minimum wage” or salary floor, which is equal to 11,200 liras. Is.
In the continuation of the Cumhuriyet newspaper report and in order to compare the cost of Erdogan’s protection team with the monthly salaries of citizens, the following points are mentioned: “The cost of President Erdoğan’s protection army has more than doubled in one year and reached astronomical figures. This cost was 107 million 257 thousand 922 liras in September alone. According to these data, 3 million 575 thousand 264 liras were spent on Erdogan’s protection army in one day. When we compare this figure with the minimum wage, we find that the cost of one day of protecting Erdogan in September is equivalent to the monthly income of 313 Turkish citizens.
The average monthly cost of protecting the president of Turkey is directly related to provincial and foreign trips. So that in January of last year, the total cost of protecting Erdogan finally reached 99 million liras. But the cost of his protection reached 583 million and 491 thousand liras in July this year.
Regarding the protection of the life of the President of Turkey, there is a special sensitivity in the selection of agents and equipment. In a way, in the second ring of Erdogan’s protection, there are even some special officers who are skilled in shooting small rockets in the event of an attack by unknown vehicles.
Last year at the Congress of the Justice and Development Party in Sarnak, Turkey, when the son of a deceased Turkish army officer came to the stage to hug Erdogan, thirteen of the bodyguards were accused of neglecting their mission and being unable to deal with the possibility of threats.
How many guards are there?
In the videos that are seen about the movement of vehicles carrying Erdogan in Ankara, Istanbul and provincial trips, the number of uniformed and visible bodyguards is finally between 14 and 24 people. But the car convoy is very long and often exceeds 26 cars.
Some of these vehicles carry anti-espionage electronic equipment, teams to deal with terrorist threats and bomb disposal and other equipment that have high costs. But the point is that in addition to the convoy accompanying the president, other satellite groups are also protecting the president, and in the coastal provinces, in addition to the obvious ground guard, the coast guard, patrol helicopters, and even patrol drones are all protecting the president.
As a result, the exact number of the security team is not known, and this point caused some representatives to seek an answer in an official question in the parliament.
Alpay Antman, the representative of the people of Mersin in the Turkish Parliament and the deputy leader of the People’s Republic Party, asked the Minister of the Interior in an official question about this and asked him to announce the exact statistics of the security personnel and assigned vehicles.
But in response, he only limited himself to stating this sentence: “Statistics of personnel and the number and amount of equipment are done in such a way that it is sufficient for the protection mission and does not create any weakness or security gap”.
As the most widely circulated print newspaper in Ankara, the Suzjo newspaper has pointed out in a special report that the number of Erdogan’s obvious bodyguards in the first circle, as seen in the photos and videos, is not more than fifty people. But not only in fixed and roofed places, but also in circulation and open places, satellite rings and circles and snipers, there are a total of 1,500 people and all of them are elite, trained and experienced forces who have training through a long and hard time successfully.
Ismail Ari, a famous reporter of Birgun newspaper, also stated: “The daily and monthly expenses of the guards are amazing. Even the anti-narcotics headquarters and the sensitive and important department for combating goods smuggling and organized crimes have budgets and credits far less than the cost of presidential bodyguards. But we have no information about the statistics of the guards. Even when we asked Fouad Oktay, the former vice president about this issue, we heard this answer: the number of bodyguards is enough.”
Klichdaroglu, Erdoğan’s opponent in the previous presidential election, announced that Erdoğan has 16 luxury planes and that he will sell 15 planes as soon as he comes to power.
But this statistic was denied by the authorities. According to the official announcement of the presidential palace, there are only 8 large and advanced planes in Erdogan’s squadron!
At the same time, Otko Çakar Ozer announced that 8 VIP planes are not really necessary for the presidential institution, and now Turkey has a government that holds the record for having a luxury plane for the transportation of the president in the whole world.
After the 2016 coup by Fethullah Gulen’s followers, Erdogan’s security sensitivities have increased sharply. Because even before the coup, he realized the fact that the Gulenists had bugged his bedroom and office, and besides the adjutants, most of the main members of the president’s protection team, the coup plotters’ influence, were exposed and went to prison.
As a result, along with the main protection team, the Ministry of Interior and the Met Intelligence Service, Erdogan himself also takes great care and sensitivities, and even in provincial trips and short city trips, Erdogan only receives water from a special member of the protection team. and accepts food.