Turkish Forum

Author: Harut Sassounian

  • Congress Must Investigate U.S. Loans To Secretive Azeri Silk Way Airlines

    Congress Must Investigate U.S. Loans To Secretive Azeri Silk Way Airlines

    Last year, I wrote an article reporting that the Silk Way Airlines of Azerbaijan made 350 secret flights to transport hundreds of tons of weapons from Bulgaria to ISIS terrorists in Syria and other Middle Eastern countries between 2014 and 2017.

    We now have a new surprising revelation that Silk Way received $419.5 million of loans from the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) to buy three 747-8 cargo planes from Boeing to continue its sinister operations.

    The disclosure was made by a reporter for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) by filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the U.S. government in 2016. It is noteworthy that Silk Way, “owned by a company with past ties to Azerbaijan’s Aliyev family, won some lucrative contracts from the U.S. military,” according to FOIA documents.

    In fact, “Silk Way was given contracts worth more than $400 million with the U.S. Defense Department’s Transportation Command for more than decade,” according to Devansh Mehta of OCCRP. Silk Way transported “ammunition and other non-lethal materials” to Afghanistan as of 2005. “In addition to its relationship with the U.S. government, Silk Way Airlines has also worked as a subcontractor for the Canadian Department of National Defense, the German armed forces, and the French army,” Mehta revealed.

    In April 2017, Silk Way increased its purchases from Boeing, signing a $1 billion deal for 10 new 737 MAX passenger planes, according to reporter Mehta. However, it is not known how the new acquisition was financed. Last October, Silk Way announced plans to buy two more 747-8 cargo planes.

    Mehta disclosed that “the airline is owned by Silk Way Group, which, at least at one point, was closely associated with Azerbaijan’s ruling Aliyev family (which has used its planes for private trips) and has benefited from benevolent state deals. Information obtained through FOIA shows that Silk Way Airlines took steps to conceal its owners’ identity, perhaps to improve its chances of winning the valuable U.S. loan guarantees and military contracts.”

    Mehta added that “Azerbaijan ranks 122nd out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s corruption perception index, while President Ilham Aliyev’s family owns luxury properties around the world worth over $140 million. The Panama Papers and other leaks have implicated the country’s first family as being involved in nearly all sectors of the Azerbaijani economy, from luxury hotels to mining to banking.”

    According to the terms of the Export-Import Bank’s $419.5 million loan to Silk Way, in case of default the loss would be repaid by the state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA). The problem is that IBA has been “implicated in the Azerbaijani Laundromat, a massive scheme that pumped nearly $3 billion out of the country through various shell companies,” Mehta wrote. Furthermore, IBA is not in a position to guarantee the Silk Way loan, as the IBA itself declared bankruptcy in 2015, unable to pay its $3.3 billion debt!

    Nate Schenkkan, project director of the Nations in Transit report at Freedom House, a US-based nonprofit that monitors democracy and human rights around the world, questioned the wisdom of EXIM Bank’s loan to Silk Way: “In Azerbaijan, where one family dominates economically and politically, and is then using state institutions to back its economic projects, there’s an obvious conflict of interest.”

    Arzu Aliyeva, Pres. Aliyev’s 21-year-old daughter in 2010, was one of the three owners of Silk Way Bank, the financial arm of Silk Way Holding. Since 2017, her name is no longer mentioned as an owner. “Silk Way Holding, also referred to as Silk Way Group (SW Group) on its website, is a conglomerate that has currently listed 11 companies in its portfolio, including the airline,” according to Mehta.

    Silk Way Holding dominated Azerbaijan’s aviation sector after the state carrier AZAL airlines was privatized in a highly secretive manner without any bids and tenders. Mehta wrote that “a similar privatization of the telecom sector ended up with the [Aliyev] family earning about $1 billion in bribes in cash and share value, according to an earlier OCCRP story. The investigation also found that the money was funneled to the first family through various secret offshore companies. These companies have enabled the Aliyevs to control stakes in gold mines, telecommunications and construction businesses in Azerbaijan.”

    According to a filing in 2006, Silk Way Airlines was owned by IHC (International Handling Company), an offshore entity based in the British Virgin Islands. In a 2017 filing, Silk Way Airlines stated that 40% of the company was owned by IHC, while 60% was owned by SW Holding, “effectively controlled” by Zaur Akhundov, an Azerbaijani citizen. Mehta stated that “IHC is linked to the Aliyev family through its director Jaouad Dbila who reportedly served as a proxy for the first family’s business interests in the past.”

    In 2011, a Russian-born manager, Grigory Yurkov, was given power of attorney for both Silk Way Holding and IHC, according to Luxembourg’s official gazette. This appointment was used as a means to conceal the true owners of IHC.

    Meanwhile, Zaur Akhundov had mysteriously become the 100% owner of the entire Silk Way Group in 2014. By that time, the firm and its many holdings were already worth billions of dollars, Mehta declared, based on the company’s loan guarantee application. Akhundov, 50, had held several official positions in Azerbaijan. “It is unclear how Akhundov became the owner of a billion-dollar conglomerate with more than 10 aircrafts, an insurance company, a construction company and an aircraft maintenance company, to name a few of the enterprises in the Silk Way Group,” Mehta wondered.

    According Schenkkan of Freedom House, “Azerbaijan can be described as a centralized, vertical pyramid where the benefits go to one family that collects rents throughout the economy. This includes all sorts of transactions, not only official state transactions that might involve taxes and public funds, but also things that involve what we normally consider the private sector: import-export, consumer goods, transport — any area of the economy, the family has a stake in it and receives a cut on what takes place.”

    The U.S. Congress should hold a hearing to investigate the appropriateness of EXIM Bank’s $419.5 million loan guarantee to Silk Way Airlines, its arms shipments to terrorist groups in the Middle East, and its hidden ownership by the ruling Aliyev family. After all, why should Azerbaijan, a country with billions of petrodollars, be given a U.S. loan?

  • Despite an Encouraging Visit to Armenia, Chancellor Merkel Didn’t Say Genocide

    Despite an Encouraging Visit to Armenia, Chancellor Merkel Didn’t Say Genocide

     

    Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Media reports indicated that her visit to Armenia and meetings with its leadership were very constructive. Armenian-German political, cultural and trade relations are expected to expand. Merkel’s visit resulted in a much needed boost for Armenia’s new democratic government.

    One of the sensitive issues that both Armenians and the international community were carefully following was Chancellor Merkel’s comments on the Armenian Genocide. The German Parliament (Bundestag) almost unanimously adopted a resolution in 2016 recognizing the Armenian Genocide and declared that “the German Empire bears partial complicity in the events.”

    Immediately after the adoption of the Genocide resolution, Turkey withdrew its ambassador from Berlin and threatened to cut off ties with Germany. Relations between Germany and Turkey remain tense for a variety of reasons, but are expected to improve after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s forthcoming visit to Germany in late September.

    While in Yerevan, Chancellor Merkel paid a visit to the Armenian Genocide Memorial. She laid a wreath in memory of the 1.5 million Armenian victims and planted a tree at an adjacent park. However, Merkel avoided the use of the term genocide in Yerevan, describing Turkey’s mass killings as “heinous crimes against Armenians” which “cannot and must not be forgotten.” She also stated that she had visited the Genocide Memorial “in the spirit of the Bundestag 2016 resolution.” She clarified that the language used was “a political, not a legal classification.”

    Despite Merkel’s goodwill toward Armenia and her very positive statements, I hope that Armenia’s leaders reminded her that the proper term to describe the planned extermination of 1.5 million Armenians is “Genocide,” not simply “heinous crimes.”

    Armenia’s leaders could have informed Chancellor Merkel of a recent report by Ben Knight of Germany’s Deutsche Welle (DW) about the weapons provided by the German Reich to the Ottoman Turkish forces to carry out the Armenian Genocide.

    According to DW, “Mauser, Germany’s main manufacturer of small arms in both world wars, supplied the Ottoman Empire with millions of rifles and handguns, which were used in the genocide with the active support of German officers.” Furthermore, quoting from a report by “Global Net — Stop the Arms Trade,” DW stated that “the Turkish army was also equipped with hundreds of cannons produced by the Essen-based company Krupp, which were used in Turkey’s assault on Armenian resistance fighters holding out on the Musa Dagh Mountain in 1915.”

    The author of the Global Net report, Wolfgang Landgraeber, wrote that “Mauser really had a rifle monopoly for the Ottoman Empire.”

    DW revealed that “many of the firsthand German accounts in the report come from letters by Major Graf Eberhard Wolffskehl, who was stationed in the southeastern Turkish city of Urfa in October 1915. Urfa was home to a substantial population of Armenians, who barricaded themselves inside houses against the Turkish infantry. Wolffskehl was serving as chief of staff to Fakhri Pasha, deputy commander of the Ottoman 4th Army, which had been called in as reinforcement.”

    In a letter to his wife, Major Wolffskehl shamelessly bragged about the killing of Armenians by German troops in Urfa: “They [the Armenians] had occupied the houses south of the church in numbers. When our artillery fire struck the houses and killed many people inside, the others tried to retreat into the church itself. But … they had to go around the church across the open church courtyard. Our infantry had already reached the houses to the left of the courtyard and shot down the people fleeing across the church courtyard in piles. All in all the infantry, which I used in the main attack … acquitted itself very well and advanced very dashingly.”

    Landgraeber also reported that “while German companies provided the guns, and German soldiers the expert advice on how to use them, German officers also laid the ideological foundations” for the Armenian Genocide.

    German Navy Attache Hans Humann, a member of the German-Turkish officer corps and close friend of the Ottoman Empire’s war minister, Enver Pasha, wrote: “The Armenians — because of their conspiracy with the Russians — will be more or less exterminated. That is hard, but useful.”

    Furthermore, Landgraeber wrote in his report about “the Prussian major general Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, a key figure who became a vital military adviser to the Ottoman court in 1883 and saw himself as a lobbyist for the German arms industry and supported both Mauser and Krupp in their efforts to secure Turkish commissions. (He once boasted in his diary, ‘I can claim that without me the rearmament of the [Turkish] army with German models would not have happened.’)” Goltz “helped persuade the Sultan to try and end the Armenian question once and for all!”

    The above quotations support the admission by Bundestag’s 2016 resolution that Germany was complicit in the Armenian Genocide and German President Joachim Gauck’s acknowledgment in 2015 about Germany’s “co-responsibility” for the Armenian Genocide. Being well aware of these facts, Chancellor Merkel should have called the Armenian Genocide by its proper name: Genocide!

  • Fox-TV’s Devastating Attack On Turkey and Pres. Erdogan

    Fox-TV’s Devastating Attack On Turkey and Pres. Erdogan

    As the conflict between Turkey and United States is heating up, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is too stupid to realize that by continuing to hold American Pastor Andrew Brunson on trumped-up charges, he is undermining Turkey’s economy and its membership in NATO. Any other intelligent Turkish leader would have released Pastor Brunson a long time ago and maintained military and trade relations with the United States.

    Even though the Turkish government is paying millions of dollars a year to hire high-powered American lobbying and public relations firms, none of them can protect Turkey’s reputation from Erdogan’s erratic behavior. Every time he opens his mouth and takes an inept action, Erdogan further damages Turkey’s relations with other countries, reminding the world and reinforcing the long-established image of the “Barbarian Turk.”

    Here is an example of the negative PR generated by Erdogan against his own country in the American media. Lisa “Kennedy” Montgomery on Fox Business TV, Pres. Trump’s favorite channel, delivered the following devastating attack against Pres. Erdogan on August 16, 2018. In addition to millions of Americans who watched her commentary on TV, 662,000 others saw it on Facebook and many more on Twitter. Kennedy even mentioned the Armenian Genocide, as a way of getting back at Turkey!

    “How do I despise thee Erdogan? Let me count the ways. The Turkish president is putting his country in a diplomatic pickle by refusing to free an American Pastor over ‘terrorism charges.’ The fake crime is a bunch of hot malarkey, a rancid plate of Turkish non-delight; and although Erdogan has been concentrating his power to fake elections, imprisoning journalists, and purging academics, he didn’t bet that he would be strong-armed by another strong man. Our president has had it up to his eyeballs with Turkey trolling, and instead of empty words, Pres. Trump is offering a full-throttled digital slap to Erdogan, tweeting: ‘I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar! Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!’”

    Kennedy continued her criticism by stating: “When were they [relations with Turkey] ever good? The Turkish government is a disgrace, and past administrations have either coddled them or sat idly by while they’ve rolled out the welcome mat and threw the door open for ISIS, all while cozying up to Russia. This is not our strategic partner. This is a corrupt, murderous regime that should be kicked out of NATO for a host of human rights violations, not to mention deep kissing the Russians who are supposedly the biggest regional threat. Now, sure, there have been counter-threats. Now Erdogan is saying he will pull the iPhone off the market as if the people there can use the device to mobilize, enrich themselves or seek freedom from a murderous regime that wants total control, and is willing to tank the global economy to prove a childish point! And while we are at it, and while the president [Trump] is hot under the collar, if he really wants to make his new party pal Kim Kardashian happy, he should officially, and once and for all, acknowledge the Armenian Genocide which was not ‘an issue’ or ‘a series of unfortunate events,’ but a cold-blooded slaughter of 1.5 million people whose memory will not be erased by any Napoleonic nincompoop. Release Pastor Andrew Brunson, President Erdogan, and fear [Pres. Trump’s National Security Advisor John R. Bolton’s] moustache [as] Bolton is mongering, so for the sake of world peace put up and shut up so you don’t get blown up!”

    To make matters worse for Erdogan, Pres. Trump told American journalists on August 17, 2018: “Turkey has been a problem for a long time. They have not acted as a friend. We will see what happens. They have a wonderful Christian pastor. He is a wonderful man, Pastor Brunson. They made this phony charge that he is a spy, and he is not a spy. He is going through a trial right now, if you call it a ‘trial.’ They should have given him back a long time ago. And Turkey has, in my opinion, acted very, very badly. So we have not seen the last of that. We are not going to take it sitting down. They can’t take our people. So you will see what happens!”

    Before Armenians get too impressed with Pres. Trump’s threatening words, they must remember that despite Turkey’s anti-U.S. and anti-NATO policies for several decades, the West has kept heaping praises on Turkish leaders. No one in the West has had the guts to put Turkey in its place. If tomorrow, the unpredictable Erdogan releases Pastor Brunson, I am afraid Pres. Trump will start praising Erdogan once again, as he has done with Kim Jong Un of North Korea and Vladimir Putin of Russia.

    Pres. Trump should not forget that in addition to holding Pastor Brunson, Turkey invaded and occupied Northern Cyprus in 1974, banned the crossing of American troops into Northern Iraq from Turkey during the Iraq War, attacked the Kurdish allies of the United States in Northern Syria, is planning to purchase the Russian S-400 missile system contrary to NATO’s admonition, helped circumvent U.S. sanctions on Iran, and supported the entry of ISIS terrorists to Syria from Turkey.

    Even after Pastor Brunson is liberated, Turkey should not be forgiven for its many indiscretions. As numerous analysts have recently suggested, Turkey should be immediately kicked out of NATO!

  • Countering Erdogan’s Propaganda In The New York Times

    Countering Erdogan’s Propaganda In The New York Times

    By Harut Sassounian
     
    For many years, the Turkish government has hired numerous American companies in Washington, D.C., to lobby and carry out public relations on its behalf.
     
    Hiring such companies is very expensive and most of the time, it is a waste of money, as they produce more paperwork than actual results. But once in a while, they can draft and help publish opinion articles (op-eds) in American newspapers on behalf of Turkish officials and arrange their visits and meetings in the United States.
     
    The Turkish government is obligated to spend large amounts of money to hire such companies because it cannot rely on the Turkish-American community to lobby or do PR on its behalf, no matter how much funding is provided from Ankara. The same situation applies to the Azerbaijani government and the Azeri-American community. Neither the Turkish nor Azeri communities are very active in American politics and have not existed in the United States as long as the Armenian community. This is why Turkey and Azerbaijan rely on paid lobbyists to advance their interests in the United States.
     
    Given the recent turmoil in the relationship between the United States and Turkey, one of the PR firms hired by the Turkish government was probably asked to draft an opinion column on behalf of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and use its contacts to have that article published in The New York Times.
     
    Naturally, the column had to reflect the views of Erdogan rather than those of the PR firm. It would have been interesting to compare the first draft of what the American PR firm first suggested to the final version as revised by Erdogan’s staff.
     
    Judging from the content of Erdogan’s article, one can tell that the PR firm’s proposed text, written delicately and professionally, was not accepted by Ankara. Instead, what The New York Times ended up publishing is a typical bombastic article reflecting Erdogan’s dictatorial and pompous stand! Having rejected the PR firm’s more diplomatic text, Erdogan has made his article useless in having any positive effect on the American public and government.
     
    Erdogan’s August 10, 2018 critical article was titled: “How Turkey Sees the Crisis With the U.S.,” and subtitled: “Unilateral actions against Turkey by the United States will undermine American interests and force Turkey to look for other friends and allies.”
     
    The reader would be turned off right away from the article’s title by its confrontational tone and threatening language inappropriate for resolving any kind of a dispute. Here are a few examples of Erdogan’s questionable opinions expressed in his controversial op-ed column:
     
    — “…The United States has repeatedly and consistently failed to understand and respect the Turkish people’s concerns.”
     
    How about the Turkish leader’s need to understand and respect the concerns of the American people? The tail does not wag the dog! Erdogan does not comprehend that Turkey needs the United States more than the U.S. needs Turkey. For far too long, because of weak leadership in Washington, the Turkish government has gotten away with its inappropriate behavior as a NATO member and U.S. ally. The more American leaders accommodated Turkish misbehavior, the more antagonistic they have become. If decades ago, the United States had put Turkey in its place, it would have learned to behave as a junior U.S. partner, and not as a bully!
     
    — Erdogan warned: “Unless the United States starts respecting Turkey’s sovereignty and proves that it understands the dangers that our nation faces, our partnership could be in jeopardy…. Turkey has alternatives. Failure to reverse this trend of unilateralism and disrespect will require us to start looking for new friends and allies.”
     
    This is an empty threat. Turkey is free to turn to Russia or China and lose the support of the United States and Western Europe. It is high time for NATO to consider kicking Turkey out of the alliance. Good riddance!
     
    — Erdogan also accused the United States of arming Kurdish fighters in Syria and using these weapons against Turkey “in Syria, Iraq and Turkey” itself.
     
    First of all, it is a lie that U.S. weapons were used by Kurds in Turkey. Secondly, Turkish forces have no business invading Syria and Iraq, thus violating their territorial sovereignty.
     
    Erdogan went on to counter Pres. Trump’s request to free the unfairly held American pastor, Andrew Brunson, by asking the United States to respect Turkey’s “judicial process.” What judicial process under Erdogan’s dictatorship? Thousands of Turks have been in jail without any due process or an iota of guilt. If Erdogan had any brains, he would have ordered the release of Pastor Brunson a long time ago, thus avoiding an unnecessary conflict with the United States. Because Erdogan and his junior brother, Pres. Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, are so unhinged, they have generated negative publicity against Turkey and Azerbaijan that no PR company can fix, no matter how much money it is paid.
     
    Interestingly, The New York Times published an editorial on the same day as Erdogan’s article, condemning the Turkish leader’s “unscrupulous behavior” for holding Pastor Brunson on “trumped-up charges,” and asking: “is Turkey still an American ally?”
     
    Ironically, The New York Times editorial destroyed any benefit Erdogan was expecting from the publication of his propaganda article, thus wasting the large amount of money Turkey spent on public relations.
  • Turkey Pressures Non-Muslim Leaders Into Claiming that They are not Pressured!

    Turkey Pressures Non-Muslim Leaders Into Claiming that They are not Pressured!

             
     
    In a recent article, I wrote about the U.S. State Department’s annual report on International Religious Freedom which stated that “all religious groups that are not Sunni Muslim suffer discrimination and persecution in Turkey…. Religious minorities said they continued to experience difficulties obtaining exemptions from mandatory [Islamic] religion classes in public schools, operating or opening houses of worship, and in addressing land and property disputes. The government restricted minority religious groups’ efforts to train their clergy….”
     
    Immediately after this report was issued, the Turkish Foreign Ministry rejected it calling the documented violations of religious rights “a repetition of certain baseless claims.”
     
    Turkish President Rejep Tayyip Erdogan sought a stronger rebuttal of the State Department’s accusations against Turkey, even though he usually ignores all complaints about his country’s flagrant violations of the human rights of its own Turkish citizens as well as those of its minorities and even Americans such as Pastor Andrew Brunson. Erdogan immediately ordered his aides to orchestrate a joint statement signed by all non-Muslim leaders in Turkey, claiming that their religious rights are not violated. Since these non-Muslim leaders are hostages in Turkey, they had no choice but to sign the petition that was prepared for them by the Turkish government.
     
    While it would be easy for us to criticize these minority leaders for misrepresenting the violations they are subjected to, this argument should be balanced by the fact that they live under a brutal regime that has no qualms about jailing and torturing not only the religious leaders but also their community members. We should also be somewhat gratified that Pres. Erdogan, despite his despotic nature, has exhibited a rare sensitivity on the accusations against his country, and has valued the statement issued by the non-Muslim leaders, thinking that it would help Turkey look good in the eyes of the international community.
     
    As directed by Pres. Erdogan, the representatives of 18 non-Muslim minority groups in Turkey submissively signed the joint statement on July 31, 2018, claiming that their rights are not violated by the Turkish government.
     
    The statement falsely declared: “As religious representatives and foundation directors of the ancient communities of different religions and belief groups that have been living in our country for centuries, we live our beliefs freely and we freely worship according to our traditions. Statements claiming or implying that there is repression are completely false. The various problems and times of victimization in the past have reached solutions over time. We are in continual communication with our state institutions, who meet the issues we wish to advance with good intentions and a desire for solutions. We are making this joint statement consciously out of the responsibility to correctly inform public opinion.”
     
    The signatories were the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomeos I, Turkey’s Armenian Deputy Patriarch Archbishop Aram Ateshyan, Turkey’s Chief Rabbi Ishak Haleva, Syriac Ancient Community Deputy Patriarch Mor Filuksinos Yusuf Chetin, Turkey’s Armenian Catholics Spiritual Leader Archbishop Levon Zekiyan, Chaldean Community Deputy Patriarch François Yakan, Turkish Syriac Catholic General Deputy Patriarch Chorbishop Orhan Chanlı, Gedikpasha Armenian Protestant Church and Denomination Foundation Spiritual President Pastor Kirkor Agabaloglu, RUMVADER President Andon Parizyanos, VADIP and Yedikule Sourp Pergich Armenian Hospital Foundation President Bedros Shirinoglu, Turkish Jewish Society and Turkish Chief Rabbinate Foundation President Ishak Ibrahimzadeh, Beyoglu Syriac Lady Mary Church Foundation President Sait Susin, Sourp Agop Armenian Catholic Hospital Foundation President Bernard Sarıbay, Istanbul Syriac Catholic Foundation President Zeki Basatemir, Chaldean Catholic Church Foundation President Teoman Onder, Bulgarian Exarchate Orthodox Church Foundation President Vasil Liaze, Georgian Catholic Church Foundation President Paul Zazadza, and Haskoy Turkish Karaite Jewish Foundation President Misha Orme. The joint statement of these 18 non-Muslim leaders was widely disseminated to all minority newspapers in Turkey, all Turkish media, and many overseas publications.
     
    Interestingly, on August 1, 2018, a day after signing their joint statement, all 18 non-Muslim leaders were invited to the Dolmabahche Official Reception Hall in Istanbul and had a four-hour luncheon meeting with Ibrahim Kalin, Pres. Erdogan’s Spokesman. Erdogan himself was initially supposed to attend this meeting, but was unable to do so at the last minute.
     
    While the joint statement was intended to conceal the many difficulties experienced by non-Muslim institutions in Turkey, this bluff was quickly exposed when the participants at the meeting complained to Ibrahim Kalin about the multiple violations of their religious rights.
     
    For example, Archbishop Ateshyan reported to the local Armenian media that he and Shirinoglu told Kalin about the properties that in recent years were returned to Armenian community foundations, only to have the decision reversed by a mayor or a government minister. They also complained about the Patriarchate’s legal status and inability to receive contributions as a result of which the Patriarchate suffers from a serious financial hardship. Abp. Ateshyan suggested that either the Turkish government allow the Patriarchate to receive contributions or allocate a budget to pay its expenses. Abp. Ateshyan also brought up the suspended elections of local church executive committees, and the postponement of the Patriarchal election. The other participants in the luncheon also complained to Kalin about their various difficulties, contradicting their own signed statement that they have no religious problems in Turkey. That is why the luncheon took four hours!
     
    Kalin, in turn, thanked the signatories on behalf of Pres. Erdogan for their joint statement, making it obvious that it was a major public relations coup for Turkey.
     
    The only voice opposed to the joint declaration of non-Muslim leaders was Garo Paylan, an Armenian Member of the Turkish Parliament, who boldly stated: “They don’t allow us to elect our Patriarch, they don’t permit us to open a seminary, they don’t give us the right to elect the board members of our church foundations, and the community is scared like a pigeon!”
     
    The joint statement was clearly signed under duress. Ironically, the minority leaders were pressured by the Turkish regime to claim that they are not pressured! Only in Turkey!








  • The Cult of Personality in Azerbaijan: Idolizing Former President Heydar Aliyev

    The Cult of Personality in Azerbaijan: Idolizing Former President Heydar Aliyev

    By Harut Sassounian

    Publisher, The California Courier

    www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

    The worship of former President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev is so exaggerated that an American blogger Andreas Moser on his visit to Baku and Ganja encountered the “great leader’s” monuments and buildings everywhere he went. Moser wrote in his blog a satirical report, excerpts of which are reproduced below for our readers’ great amusement!

    Moser started his sarcastic article as follows: “Before I went to Azerbaijan, I was like you: I didn’t know Heydar Aliyev. But then, I had already gotten sick and tired of him by the second day…. Whether you want it or not, Heydar Aliyev will be your guide and constant companion in Azerbaijan. When you fly to Baku, you arrive at Heydar Aliyev Airport. When you arrive by train, you travel on the Heydar Aliyev Express, get off at Heydar Aliyev Station and walk along the wide Heydar Aliyev Boulevard to Heydar Aliyev Square, past Heydar Aliyev Foundations, Heydar Aliyev Schools and Heydar Aliyev Institutes. If you want to take a break from Heydar Aliyev and thus prefer to travel across Azerbaijan by car, you will still see a photo of the ex-president at every intersection, every turnoff and every roundabout.”

    Moser started his journey by visiting a park, naturally named the Heydar Aliyev Park, which was “larger than some independent states…. When you have crossed the widest street in the world [12-lanes] after a march of ten minutes, you have reached the parking area. A car park like the one in front of the Olympic stadium. It was planned big enough that all cars in Azerbaijan could park here simultaneously. But it is empty. The public squares in the city were already overdimensioned, but this here is megalomania at a North Korean level…. Once you have walked through the triumphal arch (as big as in Paris and, for the avoidance of any doubt, adorned with the name of Heydar Aliyev), which is the actual entrance, you have to traipse for another mile to reach the Heydar Aliyev Museum. Just like people had to walk through a long hall in the royal palace before meeting the king.”

    Making his way through the Park’s army of cleaners and scrubbers, “cleaning maniacs,” Moser came across an oversized statue of the “great leader” with his name engraved on it in golden letters, in front of the Heydar Aliyev Museum. Moser discovered that “the museum is three floors high, with a glass dome, much marble, much gold and white leather armchairs. Typical dictator kitsch. If you have ever visited the Gaddafis, the Husseins or the Trumps, you are familiar with it. I am the only visitor, which startles the man behind the desk so much that he turns off his YouTube video, jumps up and henceforth follows my every step, always four to five meters to my side and always looking at his phone when I look at him. We are the only two people in the whole building.”

    While the massive building of the Heydar Aliyev Museum is highly impressive, there is not much in it, except for some propaganda about the “great leader.” The Museum “only has dozens of display boards about the life of Heydar Aliyev with hundreds of photos of him. Protected by glass, there are a few books about and by him. Two-meter wide TV screens are ready to show biopics….” Moser was also impressed by Heydar Aliyev’s vast collection of photos: “Heydar Aliyev in a field with farmers, Heydar Aliyev with soldiers, Heydar Aliyev with children, Heydar Aliyev as an archaeologist, Heydar Aliyev with a water melon, Heydar Aliyev at a busy market.”

    Moser presented Heydar Aliyev’s background by quoting prize-winning Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski who wrote: “At first, Heydar Aliyev was head of the KGB in Azerbaijan, then, in the seventies, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the republic. He was a disciple of Brezhnev, who appointed him Deputy Prime Minister of the USSR. He was fired from that post by Gorbachev in 1987. Heydar Aliyev was part of Brezhnev’s circle — a group standing out for deep corruption, preference for any kind of luxury and overall debauchery. They displayed that corruption with provoking openness, not ashamed in the least.”

    Moser stated that the Polish journalist’s description “could be the motto for the museum, actually the whole park or indeed for the whole country. For someone who was already famous for open corruption under communism, an independent Azerbaijan with gushing oil wells must have been the mother of all dreams. Thus, it comes as no surprise to meet the whole Aliyev family in the Panama Papers [offshore secret accounts].”

    Moser concluded his humorous article by remembering other Heydar Aliyev Parks in Podgorica, Montenegro, Tbilisi, Istanbul, Ankara, Bucharest, Kiev, “and maybe soon in your hometown. You simply have to talk to your city council about it. Azerbaijan will pay for everything.”

    In his last sentence, Moser described Azerbaijan “as a strange country. But at least I don’t have to visit North Korea anymore.”

    In addition to Moser’s article, Wikipedia has a whole section titled, “Heydar Aliyev’s Cult of Personality” as follows: “Every city and town in Azerbaijan has a street named after Heydar Aliyev, including one of the central avenues of capital Baku. According to official information, there are 60 museums and centers of Heydar Aliyev in Azerbaijan.”

    Furthermore, there are statues of Heydar Aliyev in over a dozen countries around the world. However, Azerbaijan suffered a major embarrassment in Mexico City when its sensible City Council decided to remove the massive statue of Heydar Aliyev from a park on the city’s main avenue that Azerbaijan had paid to have renovated. “Human rights activists had objected to the statue and pointed to the repressive nature of Mr. Aliyev’s rule,” according to BBC News.

    My advice to Azeri worshippers of Heydar Aliyev is to worry more about the fate of their current President, Ilham Aliyev, rather than the deceased Heydar Aliyev, because Armenia’s recent ‘Velvet Revolution’ may soon spread to Azerbaijan, which might be more bloody than velvety!