Statement Delivered by Turkey

On the Merida Signing Conference

9-11 December 2003

Mr. President,

Honorable Heads of State and Government,

Distinguished Ministers, Delegates,

Ladies and Gentleman,

On behalf of my Government, allow me to thank and congratulate the Government of Mexico for hosting this important Conference, here in Merida. I would also like to extend our appreciation to the Ad Hoc Committee, its Chairman and Bureau on the successful conclusion of the negotiation process of the Convention. I also wish to express my deepest sorrow and sadness to the death of Ambassador Hector Charry Samper of Colombia and pay tribute to the late Ambassador for his leadership, dedication and expertise in chairing the Committee, which led to the United Nations Convention against Corruption in less than two years.

Mr. President,

As recognized internationally, corruption poses a threat to national security and stability, endangers social, political and economic development, leads to violations of human rights, erodes quality of life and undermines respect for the rule of law and the legitimacy of Governments. Corruption is a key element in economic underperformance, and a major obstacle to poverty alleviation and development with its effects most destructive in the developing world.

Although corruption is not a new phenomenon, the international dimension of corruption has recently gained in significance due to the fast growing globalization accompanied by the internationalization of illegal activities. Thus, combating corruption has become a priority both at national and international levels requiring concerted efforts, exchange of experience and harmonization of legal structures.

Because corruption is both a criminal activity in which organized criminal groups often engaged and a method used by those groups to carry out their other criminal activities, international community addressed the question by including provisions dealing with corruption in the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

However, since corruption is a broad and complex issue, a new instrument has been designed to exhaustively deal with this scourge, which necessitates well-designed, coordinated and comprehensive responses. The Convention, introducing a large set of standards and preventive measures, criminalizing most prevalent forms of corruption in both public and private sectors yet offering opportunity for States to opt out, sets a benchmark and constitutes a global response to the global challenge.

Mr. President,

Turkey has upheld throughout the negotiation process that the recovery of assets by the countries of origin should constitute an inalienable

right insofar as the transferred assets of illicit origin were derived from acts of corruption. We are pleased to see that the Convention has reconciled the needs of countries seeking the illicit assets, with the legal and procedural safeguards of countries whose assistance is sought. Therefore, the Convention made a major breakthrough by requiring States to return assets obtained through corruption to the country of origin.

I also would like to stress the importance of including a provision in the Convention dealing with the embezzlement in the private sector. Turkey has championed the idea that the corruption in the private sector should be addressed effectively in the Convention, and that the Convention would be incomplete had it only dealt with problems in the public sector. Now, we are happy to see that this provision found its place in article 22 of the Convention.

I also wish to highlight the obligation brought by the Convention to render special forms of mutual legal assistance in gathering and transferring evidence for use in court and to extradite offenders. Since most of the offences established by the Convention are not binding, good faith is all the more important in terms of mutual legal assistance, particularly in the absence of dual criminality.

Mr. President,

I would like to take this opportunity to explain briefly the experiences of my country regarding corruption and the measures taken in order to combat this evil.

Most recently, a Parliamentary inquiry has been made to examine the incentives and root causes of corruption as well as its social and political dimensions and to determine what measures should be taken. The findings of the Commission were made public and have been brought before competent authorities to be evaluated.

Turkey Joined the Financial Action Task Force in 1991 and introduced a considerable number of measures, in line with the forty recommendations, the most important being the enactment in 1996 of Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering, which established a money laundering offence based on a range of predicate crimes and other ancillary provisions. The Money Laundering Law is in harmony with article 23 of the UN Convention against Corruption, which requires Member States to include as predicate offences at a minimum, a comprehensive range of criminal offences established in accordance with the Convention.

In accordance with the Money Laundering Law, Turkey established the Financial Crimes Investigation Board, which has been acting as the Turkish financial intelligence unit ever since. The creation of the Board provided a focal point for Turkey's anti-money laundering effort.

Furthermore, a requirement has been introduced for banks and financial institutions to identify their customers whose transactions are in excess of a certain amount, and a General Communiqués has been issued on the procedures regulating customer identification and suspicious transactions.

The new Bank Law has been put into effect according to which banks are prohibited from opening any account or conducting any banking services for customers who do not submit their identification information and tax identification numbers.

The offences established by the UN Convention against Corruption in mandatory form, namely bribery, embezzlement of public funds as well as the laundering of proceeds of crime and obstruction of justice are already crimes under Turkish domestic law. In addition, other offences that the Convention requires Member States to consider establishing as a crime also fall within the domain of relevant criminal laws.

The Bank Law establishes as a crime the embezzlement by a director or a board member of any property, private funds and money entrusted to them by virtue of their position. The stipulation of the law is very similar to that provided by the Convention for embezzlement of property in the private sector. The law prescribes the same punishment for embezzlement in the private sector as the Penal Code does for embezzlement in public sector in order to achieve effective deterrence.

The Law on Declaration of Property and Fight against Bribery and Corruption imposes an obligation on public officials to declare their property before they assume office and to renew their declaration every five years during their tenure. The law establishes the false declaration as well as illicit enrichment, as a criminal offence. In case of illicit enrichment, the law also requires the confiscation of assets, which the public official cannot reasonably explain in relation to his or her lawful income.

Mr. President,

Effective response to challenges of corruption rests very much on a unified stand of nations and a determined, indiscriminate approach of each individual government. Countries must deal firmly and effectively with increasingly elusive, well-financed and technologically adept criminals who use every means available for their benefit.

For this reason, Turkey has always advocated a better-coordinated international action in the prevention and prosecution of crime, including an effective system of bilateral and multilateral collaboration in the fields of law enforcement and legal assistance in criminal matters.

Hence, in addition to the domestic measures taken, Turkey has signed over 40 mutual legal assistance agreements with other States and concluded several important multilateral agreements.

To this end, Turkey ratified the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Drugs, and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime as well as the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, which has been duly incorporated into the Turkish Penal Code.

Turkey has also signed the Criminal Law Convention against Corruption as well as the Civil Law Convention against Corruption and the ratification process for both instruments is underway.

Signing the United Nations Convention against Corruption will be yet another manifestation of Turkey's full commitment to join the international effort to eliminate the scourge of corruption and therefore to remove one of the biggest obstacles to development.

Along with these instruments regarding international crimes including corruption, Turkey is a party to many of the conventions on international cooperation in criminal matters.

Mr. President,

The Turkish Government sincerely hopes that the Convention being signed here will help the international community to eradicate this scourge. However, conclusion of international instruments does not constitute a complete remedy to the problems encountered. The completion of the Convention is only the first step. We should exert all our efforts for the second step that is to put this Convention into force as soon as possible and to implement it.

With the effective implementation of the Convention, I am sure that in the next decade we will have covered a considerable distance in the fight against corruption.

Mr. President,

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate my Government's full commitment to establish an effective international regime against corruption for the well being of the international community.

Thank you very much.