BY MUSTAFA BALBAY
CUMHURIYET- Following the recent sale of Oyakbank to foreigners, the subject of `alienation' came up again. People who see Turkish economy as part of the stock exchange - interest - foreign exchange triangle naturally welcomed the sale.
These circles' idea of Turkey usually goes like this:
`Turkey has become a country of opportunities...There are many other areas to enter...'
The government also seems to have adopted this view, and so sells everything when it gets an opportunity...
The main issue of sales to foreigners is this:
They don't make investments from scratch. They buy investments which are already profitable or believed to be profitable by paying what they cost.
At this pace, the banking sector will be largely alienated from us in a short time. With the Oyakbank sale, the percentage of foreign-owned banks reached 42 percent. This trend shows that in the near future a foreigner will chair the Turkish Union of Banks.
The banking sector, in modern understanding, is one of countries' most important economic tools. In any country, whoever controls the banking system has the money, whoever has the money controls the economy, and finally, whoever controls the economy has a say in the country's direction.
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The actors of globalization are definitely trying to take control of the banking systems of countries in regions targeted in line with the logic that I described above.
The most concrete example of this is Eastern European countries. Just after the European Union's decision to take them in, a serious alienation in all these countries began. Eighty percent of the banks in these countries - especially Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic - passed into the hands of big countries, mostly EU member states.
In other words, Eastern countries lack full access to the bloc, but the EU has entered them!
What are the alienation rates in EU countries? Here are the figures:
In Germany 5 percent, Italy 8 percent, Spain 10 percent, the Netherlands 11 percent, Denmark 17 percent, France 18 percent, and Greece 20 percent...
If alienation of the banking system is such a good development, showing a country's progress and greatness, why don't those countries open up their banks to foreigners? Why does even Greece raise hurdles to a Turkish bank not even trying to buy a bank, but merely open a branch?
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We see that alienation in Turkey is not only in the banking system, but has spread to many other areas.
Fears about water quality fuelled the bottled water sector. When they saw this, foreign firms at once snatched up the sector.
The insurance sector is experiencing an under-the-radar growth. When companies began to grow after tough times, foreigners immediately launched a `let's become partners' operations.
We can see such moves in the cleaning sector too.
On the other hand, would closing everything to foreigners, 100 percent of domestic sectors, be realistic?
Of course not... That's not what I'm arguing.
But everybody should see that the process isn't right, and will cause a complete alienation in our country in the near future...
Alienation, how, in which sectors, under which conditions, and to what extent?
A common answer to these questions in Turkey is this:
However and wherever it goes!
No country targeted by Turkey has similar policies.
The way things are going, someday there will no longer be any need for elections.
We give the rule of the country to an international company, and that's that ..."