 in the first nine months of the year, with September figures indicating an hourly cost of about $8,520, according to financial data published by the Turkish police.){kind=link}
Turkey’s presidential protection department spent 2.26 billion lira ($53.4 million) in the first nine months of the year, with September figures indicating an hourly cost of about $8,520, according to financial data published by the Turkish police.
The department spent 260.5 million lira ($6.1 million) in September alone, bringing total expenditures for January through September to 2.26 billion lira. The spending continues an upward trend that has pushed the protection unit’s budget above those of several critical police departments, including intelligence, counterterrorism, cybercrime and anti-smuggling units.
Aşkın Genç, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), criticized the increase, saying the scale of spending has become routine despite ongoing economic pressure on households. “This level of expenditure is treated as ordinary in the state budget,” he said.
Official data show that the presidential protection budget now surpasses allocations for key national police divisions. The funds support an extensive security detail for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his family, which Turkish media estimate at around 2,500 personnel.
Based on September spending, operating the protection unit costs approximately 361,860 lira ($8,520) per hour. The daily average for the January–September period was about 8.3 million lira ($195,000).
To put the figure in context, the daily cost alone matches the monthly pay of roughly 375 minimum-wage workers in Turkey. The net monthly minimum wage is 22,104 lira ($520).
Spending on the presidency’s security detail has risen each year since 2020. According to official accounts, the annual budget increased from 263 million lira in 2020 to more than 2.29 billion lira last year. The first nine months of the current year have already reached nearly the same level.
The rise comes as Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek implements a public savings program aimed at reducing the budget deficit and easing inflation. The measures include hiring limits and cuts to public sector transport.
But the protection unit’s rising costs show that the government’s savings plan does not apply to spending on the presidency. Opposition lawmakers say the contrast reveals how households face financial hardship while the state expands resources for the president’s security detail.