The Constitutional Court in Turkey has decided to cancel the Turkish Presidency’s access to free services from various state institutions.
According to the Turkish newspaper “Zaman”, the Constitutional Court in Turkey canceled the privilege granted to the Presidency to obtain services from public institutions for free, including the services of the Turkish Airlines Company.
The court considered that the presidency’s access to the services of public institutions without paying a fee is inconsistent with the constitution.
The CHP had filed a lawsuit in the Constitutional Court demanding the abolition of some provisions of the Central Government Budget Law for the year 2019, noting that there is nothing in this law that stipulates that the presidential palace can receive its movable and immovable requests, goods, services, construction and repair for free.This ruling in the aviation field entails that the presidency pays Turkish Airlines for its use of 13 civilian aircraft and 3 helicopters, according to the newspaper.
It is noteworthy that the Vice President of the Republican People’s Party in Mugla State, Mursel Alban, had several times interrogated the Vice President, Fuad Aktay, and the Ministry of Transport about the number of aircraft used by the presidency, maintenance and repair fees, and the number of flights.
The ministry denied its relationship with the matter, then issued a statement confirming that “the aircraft designated for the presidency’s VIPs are operated by Turkish Airlines and, like all other civil aircraft, are subject to the control and supervision of the General Directorate of Civil Aviation in terms of safety and security of aviation.”The Turkish opposition had accused President Erdogan of extravagance and extravagance, asking him to sell the presidential aircraft first, before talking about rationalization and non-extravagance.