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Category: Denmark

  • Saxo Bank launches new office in Istanbul

    Saxo Bank launches new office in Istanbul

    Denmark-based online trading and investment firm Saxo Bank has opened its latest overseas branch in Istanbul, following the purchase of 89.54% of Deger Menkul Degerler in May 2012.

    Apart from supporting the existing institutional client base, the new office will help customers by providing access to international financial markets.

    Egemen Kaya has been appointed as the head of the new office, who was previously working as head of emerging markets and precious metals desk at Saxo Bank’s headquarters in Denmark.

    Kaya said the low inflation and interest rates in Turkey, presents an attractive scenario for Turkish investors to invest in various international market products including Forex, international stocks, futures and options.

    “By having a presence in this young and buoyant market, Saxo Bank and its Turkish subsidiary Saxo Capital Markets Menkul Degerler are now positioned well to facilitate these demands,” Kaya added.

    Saxo Capital Markets Menkul Degerler provides retail investors access to 20,000 financial instruments, including over 50 forex pairs, 8,300 CFD, Single Stock CFD on over 21 global stock exchanges, CFD ETFs, Stock Indices CFDs, Futures, Contracts Options among others.

    Established in 1992 and headquartered in Copenhagen, the Saxo Bank Group trades in Europe, Asia, Middle East, Latin America and Australia.

    via Saxo Bank launches new office in Istanbul – Banking Business Review.

  • Turkey angry after Danish court leaves Kurd TV on air

    Turkey angry after Danish court leaves Kurd TV on air

    rojtv

    COPENHAGEN, Jan 10 (Reuters) – A Danish court imposed a small fine on the owners of a Kurdish television station on Tuesday but did not shut it down, despite finding it guilty of promoting terrorism, a decision condemned by Turkey which is fighting Kurdish separatists.

    Prosecutors said Roj TV, an international satellite station based in Denmark, was financed and controlled by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group labelled a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

    Ankara has long sought to have Roj TV banned. However, the Copenhagen court did not revoke its broadcasting licence and instead fined the two companies behind it 65,000 Danish crowns ($11,100) each.

    The verdict was cheered by dozens of Kurdish demonstrators who gathered outside the courthouse but was condemned by Turkey as lending support to terrorists.

    ” This is an absolutely irresponsible decision far from prudence ,” Turkish Minister for EU Affairs

    via UPDATE 1-Turkey angry after Danish court leaves Kurd TV on air – chicagotribune.com.

  • ROJ TV promotes PKK, says Danish prosecutor

    ROJ TV promotes PKK, says Danish prosecutor

    COPENHAGEN – Anatolia News Agency

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    This file photo shows front page of Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende publishing a report on ROJ TV showing the relations between the TV and the outlawed PKK. Hürriyet photo

    Denmark-based Roj TV, a broadcaster with alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), is spreading propaganda on behalf of the militant organization, according to a Danish prosecutor.

    The channel is the heir to Med TV and Medya TV, both of which were shut down in Britain and France, prosecutor Jakob Buch Jepsen said in an indictment presented to the court. The channel is illegal in Germany, Jepsen said while highlighting the alleged links between the PKK and Roj TV, according to reports. Jepsen further said four telephone lines owned by Roj NV, which provides programs to Roj TV from outside the country, were also being used to provide contacts between Turkey and northern Iraq.

    The PKK is recognized as a terrorist group by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU. Turkey’s European Union minister yesterday said Roj TV was the only issue negatively affecting relations with Denmark.

    Egemen Bağış said the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was not only a terrorist organization, but also an illicit drug trafficking gang that was poisoning the European youth. “The only negative issue in our relations with Denmark is Roj TV,” Bağış told Turkish reporters in Copenhagen. He said time would show what kind of an attitude would be assumed by Denmark, which takes over the rotating presidency of the EU in January. Bağış said he had observed during his talks that Danish executives had perceived Turkey’s contributions to the EU more this year when compared to the previous year. The EU had yielded to the spoiled stance of the Greek Cypriot administration, Minister Bağış said.

    December/07/2011

    via POLITICS – ROJ TV promotes PKK, says Danish prosecutor.

  • Bagis Meets Danish FM, Says No Shift in Turkey’s Axis

    Bagis Meets Danish FM, Says No Shift in Turkey’s Axis

    Turkey’s State Minister for EU affairs and Chief EU negotiator Egemen Bagis met with Danish Foreign Minister Lene Espersen as part of his talks in Copenhagen on Tuesday.

    espersen bagis

    Following his meeting with Espersen, Bagis spoke to reporters and ruled out any shift in Turkey’s axis.

    “Turkey will continue to be the most western country of the East and most eastern country of the West. Our allies are aware of this,” Bagis said.

    “Turkey has always been seen as a bridge between the East and the West. Nobody wants to cross a bridge with one pier decayed. All piers of the Turkey bridge, in the east, west, north and south, all of them are being reinforced concurrently,” he said.

    Asked about Turkey’s EU bid, Bagis said political stonewalling against opening of negotiation chapters was very annoying for Turkey.However, Bagis said, in this period Turkish government was working to raise standards of the country, not to open chapters.

    “We have done what we had to. But of course, Turkey will not throw up the sponge or be demoralized just because some countries blocked chapters. The important thing is priorities of the Turkish people,” Bagis said.

    Bagis also said that Danish government’s support to opening of chapters continued. He said Danish Foreign Minister Espersen would pay a visit to Turkey in February.

    AA

  • Denmark Justice minister under pressure over Terrorist PKK’s TV station

    Denmark Justice minister under pressure over Terrorist PKK’s TV station

    Evidence suggesting the PKK has long had links with a Kurdish television station in Denmark has put the justice minister in the hot seat

    Photographs clearly linking a Copenhagen-based Kurdish TV station to militant organisation the Kurdistan Workers’ Party – more commonly known as the PKK – has put pressure on justice minister Lars Barfoed to take action.

    Information obtained by Berlingske Tidende newspaper revealed that both police the justice ministry’s Civil Affairs Agency have been long in contact with a witness with knowledge of PKK’s financial support of the station. Berlingske Tidende also published several photos this weekend showing ROJ-TV personnel at PKK training camps in the Middle East.

    Several countries consider the PKK to be a terrorist organisation, including the US and the EU.

    Justice minister Lars Barfoed has now put the blame for the media fiasco squarely on the shoulders of his own office, stating that the CAA should have informed him properly about its investigation into possible illegal funding of ROJ-TV.

    The CAA has now said ‘a clear error’ had been made in that the Justice Ministry was not appropriately appraised of the CAA’s conclusions in the investigation.

    Since 1999 the CAA had been investigating numerous large donations to the TV station from the Kurdish Culture Foundation, which contrary to Danish law could not identify the source of the funds to the agency.

    The CAA twice threatened to fine the station after investigations – once in 2004 and again in 2008. But no sanctions were ever brought against the foundation, despite that the large sums of money continued to support ROJ-TV.

    According to Berlingske Tidende, ROJ-TV has been allowed to keep up to 118 million kroner of illegal funding since 2004.

    That there has been close contact between ROJ-TV and the PKK is not in itself news, as many politicians as well as the Turkish government have long accused the station of being a mouthpiece for the Kurdish organisation.

    In March, ROJ-TV’s other broadcasting centre in Belgium was raided by police for alleged terrorist affiliations.

    The public prosecutor’s chief witness in the case is Manouchehr Zonoozi, ROJ-TV’s former managing director, who has been in contact with police for at least a year. But Zonoozi himself is implicated in the case, as police’s evidence directly connects Zonoozi with PKK camps.

    Zonoozi had long maintained that although ROJ-TV had contact to PKK sources, the station was an independent broadcaster and not controlled by the organisation. Since coming forward as a witness, however, he has altered that stance.

    Zonoozi left his position with ROJ-TV in 2008 and has been in contact with Danish police since April 2009.

    MPs from several parties are calling for Barfoed to take decisive action in the case and, if necessary, shut down ROJ-TV.

    In the meantime, Barfoed has forbidden the Kurdish Culture Foundation from giving any further donations to the station without the express approval of the CAA.

    The Copenhagen Post

  • Roj TV Caught Red-handed

    Roj TV Caught Red-handed

    Monday, 24 May 2010

    By Gamze Coskun, JTW

    Roj TV-PKK connection, ignored by Denmark, is revealed by the photos and statements of the resigned general manager of the channel, Maonuchehr Zonoozi.

    Maonuchehr Zonoozi who resigned from the channel in 2008 made striking statements. Zonoozi stated that he got in contact with the Denmark police to bear testimony and gave photos proving the Roj TV-PKK connection; however the police did not do anything about the issue.

    Maonuchehr Zonoozi indicated that he did not know about Roj TV’ laundering PKK’s money gained from drug smuggling and human trafficking.

    Zonoozi who had been general manager of the channel for 10 years said that he realized the connection in 2004 when they had a meeting at a PKK camp in Erbil. He added that he struggled for preventing PKK’s intervention to the TV’s broadcast.

    Furthermore, he emphasized that he resigned from his job because of Belgian PKK militants’ threats. Zoroozi said, “Go and see the personnel working at Roj TV, all of them are people injured at conflicts.” Maonuchehr Zonoozi also implied that Murat Karayilan was continuously in touch with Roj TV broadcast center through satellite phone and Director of the channel Henrik Caprani Winkel was aware of this fact.

    Reactions to the News

    Prime Minister Rasmussen’s Party Spokesman on Policy of the Law, Kim Andersen, indicated that he wanted to learn why this issue was not taken into consideration by the police. Socialist People’s Party spokesperson Karina Lorentzen said that such an action tarnishes the image of Denmark about war on terror.

    However, Prosecutor Lise Lotte Nilas stated that it is not forbidden to contact with the organizations in the list of terrorist organizations. Furthermore, she implied that what is important is whether Roj TV supports terrorism, and causes the terrorist actions to accelerate.

    Journal of Turkish Weekly