Category: Business

Turkey’s Atlasjet submits evidence in appeal case against Air Finland

18 September 2011, Sunday / YASİN BABACAN , HELSINKI

Atlasjet’s Ersoy showed multiple documents at the court to show that Air Finland’s account of what happened between the two erstwhile partners were “baseless.” Atlasjet, a private Turkish airline, built an evidence-based case against Air Finland as the representatives of both companies confronted each other at a Finnish high court last week.

Atlasjet’s appeal of a decision made by a local Finnish court that ruled it must pay 2.5 million euros in compensation to Air Finland over a contract dispute four years ago ended on Friday in the Nordic country’s Court of Arbitration in Helsinki after the attorneys of both sides delivered their closing statements.

According to the contract, which Atlasjet says it had no option but to cancel a few months after signing it, the Turkish airline would carry passengers from various locations in Europe to Turkey with rented planes and crew from Air Finland. However, due to many technical problems with Air Finland’s planes, Atlasjet claimed that significant delays had tarnished the Turkish company’s image and caused it substantial financial losses.

Atlasjet Chairman Murat Ersoy answered claims made by Air Finland by showing multiple documents, underlining that the Finnish company’s account of what happened between the two erstwhile partners were “baseless” and “aimed at misleading the court.”

“Every single event in the aviation sector is recorded,” Ersoy said on Thursday. “I will show you all the evidence with the real reasons for the massive delays caused by Air Finland’s planes and that we were the party that really suffered.”

Pointing to some documents in his hand, Ersoy said: “Air Finland’s pilots drank too much alcohol when they were in Turkey. They severely injured themselves when they fell from some cliffs in Antalya. Air Finland cancelled the flight since they had no other pilot to replace the injured ones just a few hours before the flight’s departure from Antalya to Vienna. Air Finland’s pilots would have been able to fly that plane had they not fallen. I cannot even imagine what the outcome would have been if they hadn’t been injured and had taken their seat in the cockpit,” Ersoy stated. “Here I present to you three documents. The first is from a police station since the injuries were reported to the police in Antalya. The second is a document from a hospital which shows the pilots registered a 2.66 promille blood alcohol level, and the last is a letter from the management of the Dedeman Hotel [where the pilots were staying] stating that Air Finland’s pilots had disturbed hotel customers after drinking too much and that the customers had asked the hotel to tell the pilots to leave,” he added.

Moreover, the Atlasjet chairman also said the contract stipulated that the counterparty, Air Finland, had to provide “enough” crew for a flight schedule of 350 hours, meaning that there should have been a minimum of five sets of crew, so that some could rest while others were flying. “However, it [Air Finland] provided just four sets of crew to us. There is not a single aviation company that pledges to conduct 350 hours of flying in a month with only four sets of crew. Also, Air Finland asked us to reschedule some flights due to the rest periods of the crew. This clearly shows that four sets of crew were not enough to maintain the flight schedule, causing many delays,” Ersoy said, adding, “Air Finland said it was not aware of this problem, but here are the documents to show its operation center was informed about the fact that one of the reasons for the many delays was caused by having fewer crew.”

Touching on the 25-hour delay in the Spanish city of Barcelona, Ersoy said the problem was caused by the pilots’ failure to start the plane’s Air Power Unit (APU). Ersoy stated that the pilots could not start the APU four times, and called for support from Spanish airport officials afterwards. “Here I have a document from Technic Iberia showing there was no problem with the APU. It was Air Finland’s fault. The pilots followed the wrong procedure to start the APU a total of four times, causing a delay of 25 hours and forcing us to pay out 180,000 euros in compensation to the passengers.”

“These and all the other delays have decreased the dispatch reliability of Air Finland’s Boeing 757 to 54 percent, while a recent Boeing report shows the worldwide average of reliability of their 757s is 98 percent. In fact, a previous Boeing report in 2007 showed that the world average dispatch reliability fell one percentage point to 97 percent. I cannot ask myself if that average was caused by Air Finland’s extremely low figure of 54 percent in that year,” Ersoy told the court, adding that this issue should be carefully investigated by the Finnish civil aviation authority.

Also speaking at the court, Atlasjet CEO Orhan Coşkun said Air Finland CEO Mika Helenius had given him his business card, telling Coşkun that he could reach him on his cell phone whenever a problem arose with the Finnish company he manages. “I wish he were also sitting here so I could say everything while looking him straight in the eye. Every time I called him Helenius said he would do what is necessary about the delays but never did as he promised. He even stopped answering my calls after the incident in Barcelona,” Coşkun added. Helenius immediately left the courtroom after Coşkun was called as a witness and came back after Coşkun finished his defense. The Air Finland CEO and his attorney declined to comment on the issue.

Two officials from the Turkish Embassy in the Finnish capital carefully followed the hearings that started on Tuesday.

On Friday, only the attorneys of both parties attended the hearing; however, Ali Çivi, Atlasjet’s attorney, told Today’s Zaman that an “interesting” incident happened following the court session.

“Air Finland’s attorney sent an email to the panel of judges on Thursday night with new evidence about Atlasjet. This evidence was accepted by the court on Friday morning, which is unwonted, and Ersoy was called to the court immediately. Ersoy testified presenting some evidence and asked the court to accept his documents as it had Air Finland’s, documents that were related to Air Finland’s claims. The court only accepted the schedule plan of Atlasjet’s Antalya-Vienna flight following a five minute recess,” Çivi said.

September 19, 2011
Air Force General blows whistle on Obama, but media deaf

General Shelton told lawmakers that he was pressured to be less than honest by the White House when he gives testimony before Congress. Credits: DoD File Photo

Jim Kouri, Law Enforcement Examiner

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

“If an Air Force general blows the whistle on the Obama White House, does anyone in the media hear the corruption?”

A United States Air Force general is blowing the whistle on another alleged White House scandal, but few in the news media seem to be listening.

According to General William Shelton, the commanding officer of U.S. Air Force’s space command, he was told to alter his testimony before the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Strategic Forces regarding an Obama White House attempt to award a defense contract to the Lightsquared firm.

Lightsquared is a high-tech company doing business in Virginia that’s owned by billionaire Philip Falcone, an Obama friend and campaign contributor.

According to the National Legal and Policy Center, Phil Falcone had visited the White House and made large cash contributions to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Soon after, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted his LightSquared a highly unusual waiver that allows the company to build out a national 4G wireless network on the cheap.

Republican lawmakers say that after Falcon’s visit, the Obama White House allegedly tried to push through a Lightsquared’s proposed wireless network regardless of the objections emanating from military commanders who believed the project could disrupt key U.S. satellite systems.

At a hearing on Thursday, lawmakers on strategic forces subcommittee, especially the Republican chairman, Michael Turner, requested that the House Oversight Committee investigate if Falcone’s company garnered any type of special treatment from the White House or from Obama appointees.

The hearing came after a report by a blogger on a news and commentary web site alleged that the Obama White House pressed General Shelton to downplay his concerns about the proposed Lightsquared system.

According to the National Legal and Policy Center, Phil Falcone had visited the White House and made large cash contributions to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Soon after, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted his LightSquared a highly unusual waiver that allows the company to build out a national 4G wireless network on the cheap.

“Under extremely unusual circumstances, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently granted a company called LightSquared the right to use wireless spectrum to build out a national 4G wireless network. LightSquared will get the spectrum for a song, while its competitors have to spend billions,” according to NLPC’s Ken Boehm.

President Obama’s underlings deny any wrongdoing, and officials at Lightsquared denied the charges that it is receiving preferential treatment from President Obama or his staff.

Republican staff members on the subcommittee say that the decorated General Shelton told the lawmakers that Obama administration officials urged the general to describe Lightsquared’s system favorably during his congressional testimony.

During the hearing, General Shelton told committee members that the wireless broadband network manufactured by Lightsquared would have a negative impact on the current Global Positioning System (GPS) relied on by both the U.S. military and private sector users of the GPS.

General Shelton told the committee members: Tests with Defense Department experts, civilian agencies and others “indicate the LightSquared terrestrial network operating in the originally proposed manner poses significant challenges for almost all GPS users.”

The general insisted through his spokesperson on Friday that he had not “watered down his testimony due to alleged White House pressure.”

According to a source familiar with the Lightsquared probe, many officers at the Pentagon are highly suspicious of the President, the White House staff and even Obama’s appointees at the Defense Department.

Another occurrence being probed is that the allegation that Lightsquared at first offered to sell satellite phones on its network, however the Federal Communications Commission allegedly issued a special waiver to the firm thus allowing sell terrestrial-based wireless service to other companies.

Department of Defense officials. such as General Shelton, in the past have raised concerns about interference with GPS users, and the FCC would then promise to disallow a firm to begin operating their network until after intense testing is carried out to ensure there is no disruption to satellite navigation.

The head of the FCC declined to appear before the committee on Thursday, which the chairman, Turner, called an “affront” to the panel.

Meanwhile, Falcone and Lightsquared executives are taking the offensive by giving Obama-friendly journalists at Politico exclusive interviews.

LightSquared CEO. Sanjiv Ahuja, and its billionaire backer, Phil Falcone, denied all allegations that the wireless company used its political pull with the Obama administration to secure approval of its business plans with the Defense Department.

“It’s just very disappointing that people are not seeing the facts here, and [that] this has become a real political issue,” Falcone, a senior executive at the hedge fund firm Harbinger Capital, said during his Politico interview. “It’s not a function of being a Democrat or a Republican, it’s about trying to be an innovator. … It’s very disappointing and frustrating that we are getting stonewalled like this. … I kinda scratch my head every single day and say I can’t believe this is happening.”

Falcone and Ahuja denied receiving special treatment from the White House or the FCC in their ongoing quest to become the nation’s first wholesale wireless broadband provider, according to Politico.

But some observers see things differently. Mike Baker, a political strategist and a former military officer, believes that this investigation needs to be taken to wherever or whomever it leads. He’s like to see a special prosecutor appointed.

“This is a very important national security issue, not some politically-motivated witch hunt like the Valerie Plame-CIA case. But we all know that with the news media protecting this president, the chances of anything being done are slim or none,” he quipped.

“First of all, we know what motivates politicians and big business. In the middle you have a career officer who is a four-star general. Whom would you believe? What’s in it for General Shelton to make up stories?” Baker asks.

“Let’s hope General Shelton sticks to his guns and that more Pentagon and Justice Department officials decide enough is enough from this administration,” Baker added.

www.examiner.com, September 17, 2011

September 19, 2011
“OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTEST”, TOTAL MEDIA BLACKOUT

Speaker: We’re going to make our own Tahrir square here

Speaker: We're going to make our own Tahrir square here

The corrupt fear us. The honest support us. The heroic join us.

AT LEAST 70,000 AND COUNTING… BIG MEDIA BLACKOUT “Occupy Wall Street”

10 questions about “Occupy Wall Street” that should be answered urgently:

1. Why are peaceful protesters being treated as if they are criminals?

2. Why are thousands of police, and SWAT teams and police dogs, being mobilized to protect Wall Street bankers?

3. Why are almost all the mainstream media outlets in America ignoring a major civil protest in the heart of New York?

4. Why do the police not pursue criminal bankers and business leaders with the same venom and force that they use when pursuing protesters who have so far done nothing wrong?

5. Why is nothing being done to address the genuine economic problems in America? Why, instead, is the old system – the one that failed disastrously in 2008 – being rebuilt brick by brick, fault by fault?

6. How much longer will the doctrine of ‘plausible denial’ be allowed to act as an excuse for widespread corruption and criminality?

7. Why (if true) was the Occupy Wall Street protest treated as a police code 1-34, which is used for riots? Are all protests now riots?

8. Why has not one banker or corporate leader emerged to talk to the protesters or debate with them?

9. Is it a coincidence that many people in the heart of the protest have had trouble getting mobile / cellphone / internet signals?

10. Does the government genuinely believe the pent-up anger and frustration will simply go away?

David Wendt ⋅ September 17, 2011

#OccupyWallStreet #takewallstreet

Aljazeera Coverage:

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September 18, 2011
US Wary of Turkey’s Financial Dealings With Iran

US Wary of Turkey’s Financial Dealings With Iran

Dorian Jones | Istanbul

Turkey and its U.S. and European allies could be on a collision course over Iran. Despite international efforts to isolate Iran over its disputed nuclear program, Turkey has deepened trade and financial relations with Tehran. A Turkish state bank recently helped transfer a multi-billion-dollar payment to Iran. The deal comes in the face of Washington’s calls on Ankara to stop cooperation.

The Turkish state-owned Halkbank recently has helped India transfer part of a $5 billion payment to Iran for oil deliveries. The intervention of the Turkish bank is a major boost to Tehran, according to Turkey-Iran expert Mehrdad Emadi.

“This money was very badly needed and it actually had caused shortage of hard currencies in Tehran,” said Emadi. “So in that sense, it actually gives a new lease of life to regime.”

The Indian payment had been delayed by increasingly tightening Western sanctions on Iran. The West suspects Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its program is for peaceful energy development.

Jamshid Assadi of France’s Burgundy Business School says Washington is increasingly successful in stopping Western financial dealings with Tehran.

“The sanctions is much harder for Iran, in the financial flows because the financial networks are much globalized. And when it’s globalized, American banks are very powerful on it. For financial transactions, it’s very difficult,” said Assadi.

In a recent a visit to Turkey, senior U.S. treasury official Roger Cohen spelled out Washington’s concerns. “As trade increases, as financial ties expand, it runs counter to the international community’s desire to constrain Iran and to ensure the choice that has been put to the Iranian leadership between continued defiance and integration with the international community, is as sharp as possible,” he said.

Cohen cited Iran’s Mellat bank, which operates in Turkey, as helping to foster Tehran’s nuclear program. Despite Western calls for its activities to be restricted, the Turkish branch recently announced increased profits and growth.

Washington has reportedly warned Turkish banks operating in the U.S. that they could face prosecution if they violate Iran sanctions. According to a diplomatic source, at least one Turkish bank is under investigation by U.S. authorities.

But Ankara has mostly refused to abide by sanctions on Iran. Bilateral trade has continued to grow.

Turkish politician Volkan Bozkir, who heads the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, dismisses U.S. threats.

“Countries should be careful in warning Turkey [that] it’s the not the country of 10 years ago. Is there any rule in the world that the U.S. can impose any sanctions without any U.N. support or legal institutions? It’s only the U.N. which can impose sanctions. We will abide with the U.N. sanctions.”

Still, Ankara is wary of harming relations with Washington, says former Turkish diplomat Murat Bilhan, especially when it come to military alliances.

“Turkey does not feel any threat from Iran, but I would definitely say Turkey would not hurt Turkish-American relations just for the sake of Iran. Because Turkey does observe the interest of the United States, as you have seen that in the missile shield,” said Bilhan.

Bilhan is referring to Ankara’s decision to allow the placement of U.S. radar on its territory as part of NATO’s anti-ballistic missile system aimed at detering Iran. The decision was praised by Washington this week and condemned by Tehran.

via US Wary of Turkey’s Financial Dealings With Iran | Middle East | English.

September 17, 2011
Turkey Is No Economic Powerhouse

Turkey is not an economic power, but rather a state whose credit bubble will be exploding any moment and bringing down its economy. The budget deficit of the collapsing Greece compared to its GDP stands at some 10%. At the same time, Turkey’s deficit is at 9.5%. (Israel’s deficit stands at 3% and is expected to decline to 2% this year.)

While Turkey’s economy grew by 10% this year, this was the result of financial manipulation. The banks in Erdogan’s Turkey handed out loans and mortgages to any seeker in recent years, offering very low interest rates. Turkey’s Central Bank financed this credit party via loans from overseas. Turkey’s external debt doubled in the past 18 months, which were election campaign months. Erdogan’s regime was re-elected not because of Islamic sentiments, but rather because he handed out low-interest loans to everyone. Now the date for returning the loans is approaching.

With a weak currency and with a stock exchange that lost some 40% of its value in dollars in the last six months, Erdogan wants to be the Middle East’s ruler?

(Guy Bechor – Ynet News)

September 17, 2011
Turkey’s Entrepreneurs Rely on Friends, Family and Fools

By Ben Rooney

Walk out on the streets of Istanbul’s old city at 11 p.m. at night and every shop is open, every cafe full, and everyone you meet wants to do business. Turkey does not lack for entrepreneurs; this is entrepreneurism in the raw.

At our meet up held in Ozyegin University, itself a start-up, more than 170 people were registered; that is nearly a hundred more than at any other city.

But while the culture of entrepreneurship is evident, the tech scene is less developed. Firstly it has no center; start ups are scattered across Istanbul. It seems odd that such a virtual world should have physical needs, but location is important. Berlin has the former east, London has “Silicon Roundabout” and America, as if we need to be reminded, has Silicon Valley.

Then there is the state of the technology ecosystem. People like Ishan Elgin, executive director at the center for entrepreneurship at Ozyegin, and Burak Buyukdemir running his own incubator, are building it and with success—but there is a way to go yet.

Talking to tech start ups and you get the same message. Early stage funding. Where are the Turkish angels they ask? Where do we get the money to start? It seems the notorious 3F plan—friends, family and fools—is the main path.

And it isn’t just the money that the start ups need, it is also the business acumen. They want access to mentors and the opening up of contact books.

One entrepreneur described what he had done in the past. I set up this business, but it failed, he said. I stopped him there and asked what was the attitude people had when you tell them this? His face clouded. “Failure is not a good thing here,” he said, but went on to say how much he had learned from his mistakes.

That attitude to failure is, alas, a facet Turkey shares with much of Europe. That and a slight disdain for running your own start up. “Turkish people like to think they are entrepreneurs,” he said, “but if you tell your parents you are going to run a start up they will say, ‘Oh. Couldn’t you get a proper job?’”

But the optimism in Turkey, and the evident pride the country has in its economy (someone said to me that people used to say “should Turkey join the EU. Now they say, should the EU join Turkey”) is evident. And while the community has a way to go, it is moving quickly. According to Mr. Elgin, there are some 15 business angel networks, and the number is increasing.

And venture capital is available. Intel Capital, Hummingbird and Kleiner Perkins have all done deals. Sequoia is looking around and, says Mr. Buyukdemir and Mr. Ishan, there are local VCs as well.

That capital has lead to some success. When you look back at Turkey’s history of exits it has had a few reasonable sized deals. The one that everyone talked about was eBay’s $215 million purchase of 93% of local ecommerce player gittigidiyor.com in March 2011.

An exit like that does two things: it helps feed the ecosystem where founders become angels and plough the money back in and secondly it stokes the desire to succeed.

Turkey’s economy is growing at breakneck speed, and its young workers are heavy mobile and Internet users (it is the 5th largest nation of Facebook users, and ranks 8th globally on Twitter). With a population of 77 million, as well as some 3 million Turks in Germany, it is an attractive home market.

But the country’s size is a mixed blessing. While it gives start ups a good local market, it blunts global ambition. Most Turkish players are building Turkish sites in Turkish to serve Turks. And when you look at those sites, a lot of them are just clones of successful models working elsewhere.

Taking someone else’s ideas and translating them into Turkish may help to teach the basics of running a web start up, but it isn’t a long-term growth strategy, and if that is all there is on offer, the money men from Kleiner Perkins et all are going to be back on the plane, with their virgin checkbook stowed in the hold.

via Turkey’s Entrepreneurs Rely on Friends, Family and Fools – Tech Europe – WSJ.

September 16, 2011