When Turkey’s finance ministry sent the Dogan media group a bill for TL4.8bn ($3.2bn) in unpaid taxes and penalties this autumn, foreign investors were dismayed – but not overly nervous.
Ministers maintained that the fine, along with a TL900m penalty imposed earlier in the year, was the result of routine inspections, with no political interference. But most viewed it as personal – the culmination of a long and public feud between prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Aydin Dogan, the billionaire whose newspapers and TV channels had become increasingly critical of his government.
