AKP-led municipalities hold nearly half of local administrations' debt to Turkish treasury

Despite the government's attacks on opposition-led municipalities over their debts, eight ruling coalition-led municipalities account for nearly half of the debt among the 28 local administrations indebted to the Turkish Treasury.

Wednesday December 18 2024 12:17 am

Duvar English

Data from Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Ministry's "treasury receivables stock" revealed that a significant portion of the municipalities' debt to the treasury belongs to a small number of AKP-led municipalities.

As of November 2024, the total debt of 28 local administrations, including municipalities and their affiliates, to the Treasury amounts to 10.54 billion Turkish liras. Notably, nearly half of this debt is owed by eight municipalities led by the ruling coalition, according to data reported by the daily BirGun.

Of the total debt to the Treasury, six billion liras were owed by 20 municipalities under the administration of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) or the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party.

Notably, after deducting the debt of these 20 municipalities, including major cities such as the capital Ankara, Adana, and Mersin, the remaining 4.5 billion liras belonged to only eight municipalities.

Seven of these eight municipalities were controlled by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and one was governed by the coalition partner, the ultra-nationalist Great Unity Party (BBP).

For instance, the AKP-controlled Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality had a debt of 1.91 billion liras, while the Samsun Metropolitan Municipality owed 1.15 billion liras, and the Samsun Water and Sewerage Administration had a debt of 503 million liras.

Gov’t continues to attack opposition municipalities over debts

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in his statement following the cabinet meeting on Dec. 9, once again addressed the opposition municipalities' debts.

While the government has been targeting CHP-led municipalities over their social security debts, President Erdoğan said he had instructed Labor and Social Security Minister Vedat Işıkhan to collect these debts.

He also urged Minister Işıkhan to "be much more determined in shaking them down."

Following Erdoğan’s remarks, the CHP clarified that the majority of the municipalities’ social security debts stemmed from the ones inherited from the previous AKP mayors.

The CHP leadership argued that the government was punishing voters due to the results of the 2024 local elections, and emphasized that the municipal debts made up only a small portion of the total social security claims.

After the AKP and its coalition partners lost a majority of the municipalities in the 2024 local elections, the government began a crackdown on CHP and DEM-controlled local administrations by appointing trustee mayors and initiating foreclosure processes for outstanding debts.

Following the elections, most of the opposition parties revealed the massive debts they had inherited from the previous ruling coalition-led municipalities.