The Turkish government has usurped control of over 950 private businesses since the failed July 15, 2016, coup attempt to overthrow the government and unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Some $11 billion worth of corporate assets have been put under government control, causing Turkish executives to flee the nation to cities ranging from Nashville, Tenn., to Helsinki, Finland, The New York Times reports. Falling prey to a massive campaign put in motion under Erdogan’s rule to imprison dissenters, many of the executives who were either unable or unwilling to leave Turkey were thrown in jail, adding to the roughly 50,000 new political prisoners.
Once a place considered to be teeming with business opportunities, Turkey’s economy has been on a downward spiral since the 2016 coup attempt. Its currency — the Lira — is deteriorating. The exchange rate has fallen from above 0.6 to one U.S. dollar to 0.28 to one U.S. dollar in under four years. Foreign investment in Turkey has been cut by half since 2016, as investors watch an ongoing political battle that appears to have no end in sight.
The 2016 coup was the most violent attempt to overthrow the government the nation has ever experienced in its 95-year political history. A faction of the Turkish military took to the streets in Ankara and Istanbul with tanks and hoards of soldiers. Turkish jets dropped bombs on the nation’s parliament.
Turkish citizens, armed with simply forks, knives and cooking equipment, took to the streets to stop the coup, which they thwarted in a number of hours along with help of some loyalist soldiers.
241 people were killed in the attempt to overthrow the government and another 2,194 were injured.
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