​Turkey’s corona scandal could shake up Erdogan administration

TURKEY - In Brief 06 Aug 2020 by Atilla Yesilada

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I’ve long suspected (and expressed the such in my humble essays), that Erdogan administration is tampering with COVID-19 patient data to attract tourists and increase out-of-home consumption.Now, there is proof, which is 99% watertight, which allows me to discuss the true extent of the outbreak and its possible consequences on the political equilibrium. I distinctly recall a conversation with several members of our audience, where one of them simply dismissed my suspicions about the extent of the COVID-19 outbreak, reminding me that even WHO had praised the stellar performance of the Ministry of Health (MoH).I don’t know if the rest of my audience is skeptical about my claims, but to prevent and doubts, I wish to start with a lengthy quote from Reuters: “Intensive care units (ICUs) and emergency rooms in hospitals set aside for COVID-19 patients are at capacity in the capital Ankara and the southeastern city of Gaziantep, medics associations from those regions told Reuters this week. The government, which lifted a partial lockdown in June to restart the economy, sounded its own warning on Tuesday when the health minister described the 1,083 new COVID-19 cases as a “severe” rise after a four-day holiday weekend. Aysegul Ates Tarla, head of the Gaziantep-Kilis Medics’ Chamber, said a single hospital in the region logged 200 new COVID-19 cases in one day recently, with the infection rate among health workers especially high. In Ankara, Ali Karakoc, general secretary of its Medics’ Chamber, said roughly 1,000 people test positive in the capital each day and he blamed what he called a premature easing of lockdown measures in June. “Patients are being made to wait on gurneys...