Mehmet Yilmaz: Road map to trial Erdogan

I would write some helpful notes to use when Erdogan stands before the country’s Highest Court: Â

1 - A group of businessmen close to Erdogan visited the head of the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) before the sale and asked him to keep "the price of those companies at a logical level."

2 - Ahmet Erturk, the head of the TMSF, announced the minimum bid price as $1.1 billion to prevent an increase in this pressure.

3 - The same group of businessmen visited Erturk again. The meeting took place in a strained atmosphere. The same two well-known short balding businessmen told Erturk, "Whose property you are selling to who, discount the price."

4 - Foreign investors interested in Sabah-ATV met with Ankara’s highest officials; some of them were told to give up.

5 - Some foreign investors were advised to break their partnership with Turkish companies and were directed to others.

6 - A cash-rich Turkish businessman, who was determined to buy the companies, was told to "stay away" from the auction. The person who sent this warning was a tall politician.

7 - Everything was done with aim, to make the Calik Group the sole bidder; the political authority pursued this line, it gave credit orders, found the foreign partner and offered this partner very attractive privatization auctions.

Some day this government's term will end. When that day comes, the bureaucrats and businessmen who witnessed these events will tell us everything they know.

Those mouths that are now clamped shut by fear will open on that day. We will just have to wait and see.

* The sale of Sabah-ATV to the Calik Group has raised eyebrows in Turkey as it was financed by state-run banks. The partner of Calik in the sale is a state company of Qatar, a country frequently visited by the Turkish prime minister, president and eight ministers in the last six months.