Turkey spends over 2 bln liras for security in first five months of 2020

Duvar English

The Turkish government's spending on security and defense exceeded 2 billion Turkish Liras in the first five months of 2020, daily BirGün reported on June 16.

While 333 million liras were spent on ammunition, making up the biggest item of spending, the second biggest item on the budget was 147 million liras of weapons, tools and war equipment.

The country spent 751 million liras for security and defense in May, 99 million in January, 281 million in February, 564 million in March and 351 million in April, totaling some 2,048,000,000 liras in the first five months of 2020.

Security-related state institutions' annual funds were also ramped up, with the Defense Ministry's budget reaching 69.4 billion liras and the police budget increasing to 41.8 billion.

The Defense Ministry has so far spent 21.1 billion liras in 2020, with the police following closely with 16.3 billion.

The president 'pinches pennies'

Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's spending account took a dive in May, with some 94,000,000 liras spent.

The president had spent some 220 million in January, 121 million in February, another 222 million in March and 124 million in April, putting total spending in 2020 at some 784 million liras.

The government's spending on services, often criticized for being a cover to fund pro-government companies, reached 1.7 billion liras in May, adding the item's annual tally up to 11.8 billion liras.