Turks called, under the weight of rising InflationTheir banks decided to reduce the maximum credit limit allocated to them after the ruling Justice and Development Party presented the draft law on the tax to Parliament, on Friday.
In light of the criticism, the party announced that the debate would be postponed until next year. The head of the Parliamentary Bloc for Justice and Development, Abdullah Guler, said, “There were some objections from our citizens. We will study all of that in detail.”
He added, “We have postponed our discussions and will re-examine, after the budget, whether some points need to be amended or deleted.”
The legislation was proposed due to the impact of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Iranian missile strikes on Israel, events that exacerbated global fears of the possibility of a broader war breaking out in the Middle East.
Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek told the private NTV network, “Our country has no choice but to increase its deterrent power. There is a war in our region currently. We are in a turbulent region.”
The draft law stipulates that people whose credit card limit is at least 100,000 liras (three thousand dollars) will have to pay an annual tax of 750 liras (22 dollars) starting from January to support the defense sector.
Simsek pointed out that “the goal of the draft law is clear,” adding, “If we strengthen our deterrent power, our ability to prevent raging fires in the region will increase.” But he added that the draft law is now before Parliament and the ruling party can “reevaluate” it.
When proposing the tax on Friday, Guler reported: Türkiye It will be Israel’s next target, a view that Erdogan has long echoed, according to an Agence France-Presse report.
“At a time when we find ourselves caught up in all these geographically hot developments, we must make our defense sector stronger than ever,” Guler said.
Arms sector
Erdogan, who criticized the Israeli military operation in Gaza and Lebanon, warned that Israeli attacks could target Turkey soon, prompting the opposition to prolong an emergency session in Parliament to obtain details from the government.
During a conference hosted by his Justice and Development Party on Tuesday, Erdogan stressed the threat posed by Israel.
He said, “If there are those who do not see the danger facing our country… then we see the danger and we are taking all kinds of measures.”
While Turkey’s defense sector has boomed in recent years, Simsek noted that it needs an additional boost.
The Turkish Minister of Finance stated that the sector plans to invest in a thousand projects, including an air defense system capable of protecting Türkiye from missile attacks.
“This requires resources,” he added.
He pointed out that Türkiye, a member of NATO, allocated 90 billion liras from its budget to finance the defense sector last year. He added, “We raised the amount this year to 165 billion liras. We may need to double this amount.”
In 2023, Turkish defense companies signed contracts worth a total of $10.2 billion, according to the head of the Turkish Defense Industries Agency, Khaluk Gurgun.
He explained that the ten largest arms export companies in Türkiye contributed about eighty percent of the total export revenues.
Sales of Turkish Baykar drones, which were used in Nagorno-Karabakh or Ukraine, reached $1.8 billion.
“Covering up the economic crisis”
Last week, Parliament held a closed session to ask the government to explain why it considers Israel a potential threat, but the opposition indicated that it was not convinced by the official response.
Spokesman for the main opposition Republican People’s Party, Deniz Yucel, said on Monday that the government was exploiting nationalist sentiments to cover up an “economic crisis.”
The inflation rate has increased over the past two years, reaching an annual rate of 85.5 percent in October 2022 and 75.45 percent in May 2023.
Official data showed that it fell to 49.4 percent in September.
Yucel said Monday that the AKP “is trying to create a false external threat and war agenda through rhetoric that Israel may attack us.”
He added, “We know and see that they are trying to cover up the economic crisis they caused.”
