Anger in Turkey at sale of land, factory to Qatar
Monday 30/December/2019 - 05:05 PM
Asamaa al-Batakoshi
There is growing anger among Turkish citizens at the decisions of President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, including the recent allocation of a plot of land overlooking the New Istanbul Channel to Sheikha Moza, the mother of Qatari emir, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
A lawmaker from the opposition People's Democratic Party asked about whether Erdogan had allotted the plot of land to Sheikha Moza in return for what is known as the "flying palace", a luxury plane given to Erdogan by Qatar.
She said Erdogan gave the plot of land to Sheikha Moza, only two and a half months after Qatar gave him the plane. She revealed that the plane was valued at $500 million.
The Turkish presidency defied criticism for taking the plane from Qatar by saying that it was a mere gift. Nonetheless, the plot of land given to Sheikha Moza is opening the door for accusations that this gift was not given to Erdogan for free.
Land sale
A Turkish newspaper revealed, meanwhile, that Sheikha Moza had bought 4.4 hectares of land in Turkey in December 2018.
The land, it said, was bought by the real estate company, 3M. The newspaper said Sheikha Moza owns 45% of the shares of the company. The newspaper revealed also that the wife of the former Qatari deputy prime minister, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiya, owns 31% of the stakes of the same company.
It added that the purchase of the land took place 50 days after the founding of the real estate company that bought it.
Erdogan countered criticism to the land sale operation by saying that there is nothing wrong with the Qataris owning land in his country.
"This is a normal thing," he said.
In October this year, another member of the Turkish parliament revealed that the Turkish government had sold a plot of land of 817,000 square meters in western Turkey to Qatar.
He added that a Qatari company plans to establish a petrochemicals complex in the same plot of land.
Qatari share
Erdogan sold a factory for the manufacture of tanks to a company, half of which owned by the Qatari government.
A member of the Qatari parliament denounced the move. He said countries do not sell their arms factories to other countries.
The same MP said the company bought the Turkish tanks factory for $20 billion.
Turkish affairs specialist, Osama Abdel Aziz, said Erdogan views Qatar as a main supporter.
"Qatar backed Erdogan during the 2016 presumed coup," Abdel Aziz told The Reference.
He noted that Qatar had pledged to invest $15 billion in Turkey, something on which Turkey pins hopes to rescue it from economic collapse.
