Opposition to US consulting firm reveals Erdogan’s weak spots
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears as the savior of the Turkish economy after revoking the decision to work with McKinsey and thereby preventing American involvement — all at the expense of his son-in-law’s professional reputation.
Turkish cartoonist Sefer Selvi published a cartoon on Oct. 13 that managed to explain several intertwined stories in a few words. The cartoon depicted Recep Tayyip Erdogan talking to the press and saying, “After American firm McKinsey, we also expelled American pastor Andrew Brunson [from] Turkey!” Indeed, Erdogan has managed to deliver a popular victory on both Justice and Development Party (AKP)-generated problems.
McKinsey is a “global management consulting firm that serves a broad mix of public, private and social sector institutions,” according to its own description. The firm has been operating in Turkey since 1995.
At the Ninth Turkey Investment Conference — which was organized by the Turkey-US Business Council in New York on Sept. 27 — Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak announced, “For the Expenditure and Transformation Office within the scope of the NEP [New Economy Program], we decided to work with international management corporation McKinsey. With representatives from 16 ministries, this office will check our goals and results [regarding the economy] every quarter.”
Yet street interviews indicate that most people have never heard of the company and did not even know how to properly pronounce its name.
