Three presidential candidates make asset holdings public

ANKARA

Erdoğan enters the presidential race after a turbulant period during which he faced massive corruption allegations. AA Photo

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the ruling Justice and Development Party’s candidate, filed his declaration of property to the Supreme Election Board (YSK) on the final day before the deadline, displaying how his financial assets had grown from 2011 to 2014. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu and Selahattin Demirtaş, the candidates of the opposition, filed their declaration of property to the YSK on the same day as Erdoğan.

According to the declaration filed to the top body, Erdoğan currently has 2,000 square meters of land in his hometown of Güneysu, Rize (worth 10,000 Turkish Lira); a personal car (worth 234,080 liras) and 4,404,192 liras and $200,000 in total in all bank accounts, in addition to 500,000 liras in holdings (debt receivable).

According to a declaration of property dated June 16, 2011, after the June 2011 parliamentary elections and which was posted on the official website of the Prime Ministry, Erdoğan at the time had the same land in Güneysu and had the same amount of holdings (debt receivable), namely 500,000 liras. He was also reported to possess a total of 3,390,384 liras, 25,000 pounds and $199,867 in all of his bank accounts.

Erdoğan enters the presidential race after a turbulant period during which he faced massive corruption allegations with the Dec. 17, 2013, graft probe. A voice recording leaked on February, in which Erdoğan was seemingly heard asking his son Bilal to turn millions of euros in cash stashed at several houses into “zero” sparked a vast political debate.

But Erdoğan rejected the authenticity of the leaks, claiming that the voice recordings were a “montage.” The opposition had then criticized Erdoğan for not filing his declaration of property since 2011.

Meanwhile, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, the joint presidential candidate of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), also filed his declaration of property.

According to the documents, İhsanoğlu and his wife currently has nine apartments in Istanbul, whether bought or inherited, as well as $3,500,000 in the bank and 240,000 liras of cash. İhsanoğlu also has a 2006 Opel Vectra.

Presidential candidate and Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) co-leader Selahattin Demirtaş also filed his declaration of property to the YSK on the same day as Erdoğan and İhsanoğlu.

Accordingly, Demirtaş has a house in his hometown Diyarbakır (worth 260,000 liras), an office which he uses as his own law office in Diyarbakır (worth 100,000 liras), two automobiles – both Audis – he uses during his party-related work, as well as a Skoda used by his spouse, Başak Demirtaş.