Category: Europe

Blonde, 34, who died after being raped twice and beaten in Turkey ironically told family she ‘felt safer there than in UK’
- Beverley Mitchell was living in the resort town of Fethiye with her boyfriend who is believed to have repeatedly beat her
- The IT worker was raped twice – once by two men, inquest heard
- Her boyfriend disappeared after she died leaving her family little hope of finding out exactly how she died
- Miss Mitchell’s father warned other young women about emigrating to Turkey
By Tara Brady

PUBLISHED: 17:42 GMT, 6 February 2013 | UPDATED: 17:46 GMT, 6 February 2013

A British woman who was living abroad because she thought it was safer than the UK was repeatedly beaten and raped twice before she died in Turkey, an inquest has heard.

Beverley Mitchell moved to Turkey after she was offered a job working in the picturesque resort town of Fethiye which is popular with many British tourists and ex-pats.

Despite her parents telling her to come home on a number of occasions, the 34-year-old thought it was safer to stay in Turkey.

Tragic: The inquest heard Beverley Mitchell was beaten and raped twice before she died in Turkey

But an inquest into her death heard that Miss Mitchell was repeatedly beaten up by her Turkish boyfriend, raped twice – once by two men – and later died in hospital after her partner delayed taking her there.

Her boyfriend, referred to in the inquest only as ‘Shahin’, then disappeared leaving Turkish police and British authorities little hope of finding out what had happened to her.
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Her father, Ken, said Miss Mitchell would regularly call him and her mother Patricia at their home in Berkshire to tell them of the beatings she experienced.

‘She used to cry over the phone and plead with us to get her out of there but the next moment we would get a phone call saying he’s apologised’, said Mr Mitchell.

‘I never believed any of it – she was always in fear of her life.’

Picturesque: The pretty town of Fethiye in Turkey where Beverley Mitchell died

Mr and Mrs Mitchell, from Calcot, near Reading, visited their daughter months before her death but said on their trip she had seemed happier.

‘If we’d have known she was unhappy that day we would have found some way to have brought her back but you can’t say to an adult “you’re coming home with us.”‘

Mr Mitchell said his daughter had been offered a job by a friend when the IT company she was previously working for went bust and so decided to stay in Turkey.

‘She said she felt safer there than she did over here, surprisingly enough,’ he told the inquest in Newbury, Berkshire.

‘When you take it at face value, Fethiye is a nice place.’

Beverley Mitchell (pictured) was asked to come home by her parents on a number of occasions

Christopher Sandford, a British shopkeeper who befriended Miss Mitchell in Fethiye, told the hearing that although she had initially seemed happy he would often see her covered in bruises or drunk – and that she had told friends she turned to alcohol to take away the pain of the beatings.

‘You would see her come in with bruises,’ he told Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford.

‘She was very thin and not eating properly,’ he added.

‘We knew of Shahin. He wasn’t in our circle of friends but we knew of him and I can only describe him as one of the many Turkish rogues.

‘The perception is it happens to so many British single women, from 15 to 90, they fall in love with a good looking guy and end up spending all their money on him. Shahin was of that ilk.’

The inquest was told how Shahin was controlling of Miss Mitchell and her friends suspected she was being forced to spend all her money on him, leaving her without enough to eat.

Another of Miss Mitchell’s friends, Steve Tristram, said in a statement given to the hearing that on May 24 last year she had been raped by two men.

Local Turkish newspapers reported that the men had been armed with guns.

However the coroner said that he had been given no evidence this was the case.

‘She appears to have been followed by two men who dragged her to the ground and raped her,’ said Mr Tristram’s statement.

‘On leaving the police station with her Turkish boyfriend Shahin, he attacked her, blaming her for being raped and beat her again.’

Mr Tristram also said Miss Mitchell had reported to Turkish police that she had been beaten.

However she did not name Shahin as the perpetrator, as she was ‘terrified of him.’

Miss Mitchell had also reported she had been raped before in Turkey.

The coroner heard Miss Mitchell fell ill in the fortnight before she died and would rarely leave the house.

Another friend, named as Willy, visited and suggested Shahin take Miss Mitchell to hospital but when he returned at around 5pm he found her unconscious.

He then called an ambulance and Miss Mitchell was rushed to Fethiye State Hospital but later died July 16, 2012.

Mr Tristram’s statement said: ‘If Shahin had taken her to hospital at 9am, would the outcome have been different?’

Mr Bedford said he had only been given her cause of death as ‘respiratory failure’, and being of ‘pathological origin’, and that a second post mortem examination carried out in the UK was also inconclusive.

However, two toxicology reports both said she had not consumed alcohol or drugs and there were no signs she was bruised or had suffered any injury.

Mr Bedford said that Shahin had given Turkish police a statement in which he described Miss Mitchell as a ‘friend’.

The inquest was told that Shahin had since vanished and that Turkish police were not investigating the matter further.

Mr Bedford said: ‘There’s no evidence that the beatings, the alleged rapes or anything of that kind were a factor and the description from Steve and Willy of vomiting and sweats suggests a more disease-related problem.

‘I have no clinical evidence beyond that.’

Mr Bedford said he had no option but to record an open verdict and that although there was scope for this to be re-examined should more information come to light – he doubted this would be the case.

Speaking after the inquest Mr Mitchell warned other young women about the perils of emigrating to Turkey.

‘How many other people, young women, will move in the future, or have been to Turkey and fall into the same trap.

‘My advice to any young woman is that it’s not as safe a place as people think.

‘She was just looking for love and never actually found it.’

Verdict: Open

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2274508/Blonde-34-died-raped-twice-beaten-Turkey-ironically-told-family-felt-safer-UK.html#ixzz2KCPKVBCB
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February 7, 2013
Turkey Hints at a Breakup With Europe

LONDON — A half century after taking the first steps toward becoming an integral part of Europe, Turkey may be ready to give up.

After heavy hints that Ankara is looking eastwards to a closer alliance with Asia, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, said this week that membership in the European Union was not a must for Turkey.

“It is not the Apocalypse if they do not let us in the E.U.,” Mr. Erdogan told reporters during a visit to Budapest on Wednesday, as he launched his latest broadside against the Union’s alleged delaying tactics to keep his country out.

His remarks followed a news conference earlier this week in Prague, where Mr. Erdogan described the delay in granting membership to Turkey as “unforgivable.”

These and similar expressions of frustration have come as Turkey approaches the 50th anniversary of an agreement with what was then the European Economic Community, which was to have led to eventual full membership in the bloc.

Mr. Erdogan set the tone in a television interview last month in which he accused the E.U. of dragging its feet because Turkey was an Islamic nation.

As my colleague Andrew Finkel wrote from Istanbul, the prime minister also “threw the diplomatic equivalent of a cream pie” into the debate by suggesting Turkey join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization instead.

Membership of the S.C.O., which groups Russia, China and central Asian states, is not widely viewed as a viable alternative to joining Europe. Andrew wrote that Mr. Erdogan’s proposal prompted Turkish columnists to ask whether he might be bluffing in an attempt to put pressure on the Europeans.

The same question was posed this week by Pravda.ru, a Russian news Web site: “The first thought about the purpose of such statements is the fact that Turkey is trying to express its disappointment with the stalled negotiations on accession to the E.U.”

But it did not rule out the possibility that Mr. Erdogan might be seeking power “wherever his country’s economic strength is consistent with its geopolitical needs as a global player,” in contrast to a weak Europe that was preoccupied with its internal problems.

Washington has suggested that Turkish membership in the S.C.O., a security organization viewed as an anti-American bulwark in Central Asia, might be problematic in view of the Turkish role in N.A.T.O.

“Obviously it would be interesting, given the fact that Turkey is also a N.A.T.O. member,” Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokeswoman, said last week.

Hugh Pope, the International Crisis Group’s project director in Turkey, suggested that Mr. Erdogan was courting popularity by bashing the Union.

Turks are frustrated not only by delays in the membership process, he told Rendezvous, but also by the draconian visa regulations they face when traveling to Europe. Potshots aimed at Turkey by European critics were also deeply offensive to Turks, he said.

“But joining the E.U. is not rocket science,” he added, emphasizing that Turkey had to meet the requirements of the club if it wanted to join. This would include making domestic reforms and changing its policy on Cyprus, an E.U. state that it refuses to recognize.

Mr. Erdogan’s recent remarks on Europe might not indicate that Turkey is quite ready to break off the world’s longest engagement.

Murat Yetkin, of the Turkish daily newspaper Hurriyet, commented on Wednesday: “It is…clear that Turkey-E.U. relations cannot go on like this any longer; another chapter this year, a pointless agreement the next.”

However, he wrote, “it seems that neither Turkey nor the E.U. wants to be the first to declare divorce. Perhaps because both sides know that it would be a strategically wrong move.”

via Turkey Hints at a Breakup With Europe – NYTimes.com.

February 7, 2013
How Family Cash Between Germany And Turkey Started Flowing East-To-West

How Family Cash Between Germany And Turkey Started Flowing East-To-West

A reversal in direction of the traditional route of remittance payments – now family members in Turkey are sending money to relatives in Germany.

How Family Cash Between Germany And Turkey Started Flowing East-To-West Western Union, Munich, Germany – (Usien) By Karsten Seibel

Western Union, Munich, Germany – (Usien)

DIE WELT/Worldcrunch

BERLIN – Turkish immigrants in Germany had long helped to feed Turkey’s economy with remittance cash and checks sent back home. Now, with Turkey’s economy growing fast — and Germany bogged down by the euro zone crisis — the money has started flowing in the opposite direction.

“We’re seeing more and more cash transfers from Turkey to Germany,” confirms Claudia Westermayr, head of Western Union in Germany.

Already, 20% of transfers are no longer going from Germany to Turkey, but from Turkey to Germany. “More and more Turks are returning to Turkey and supporting relatives who still live in Germany,” Westermayr explains.

However the usual transfers the company has been making for customers for decades – from Germany to Turkey – continue to be the majority. Turkey leads the countries that Western Union in Germany sends money to, followed by Romania and Bulgaria. Traditionally, many transfers also went to Kosovo, the Philippines and Serbia.

The euro crisis has also brought the company new client groups. “We’re benefitting strongly from immigration to Germany – with many of our customers here coming originally from Spain, Italy and Greece,” says Westermayr, who is also in charge of Eastern Europe.

She also says that the on-going influx of people from Poland had been very positive for the company and Poland had reached 4th place on the list of the top transfer destinations for the Western Union.

The company does not provide details of the exact number and volume of transfers to and from Germany, but Westermayr says that, “in 2012, Germany recorded a two-digit growth in transactions.”

Despite the increased use of electronic payments, worldwide cash transfers are a growing business. The World Bank estimates that for the first time last year, over $400 billion flowed to developing countries – 6.5% more than in 2011.

And demand is expected to keep growing. It is estimated that in 2015 the volume of money sent home by people working abroad will total $534 billion. “For many people, cash spells security,” Westermayr says. The growing market also attracts more competition, driving down the price of money transfers in Germany.

Quicker and cheaper than bank transfers

According to the World Bank, Germany continues to be one of the most expensive countries for money transfers. On average, fees represent 14% of the amount transferred whereas in Russia, they only represent 2%. The only country that tops Germany is Japan.

One of the things driving prices up in Germany are the banks – World Bank figures show that in Sept. 2012, sending 140 euros to Turkey via a money transfer provider like Western Union could cost as little as four or five euros, whereas some banks charged over 30 euros.

Money transfer specialists, who include companies like MoneyGram and Ria, say that transfers made through them are quicker than bank transfers – cash is not physically transferred from one place to another. As soon as the system registers that the amount was paid in anywhere in the world, the customer at the receiving can be paid.

In Germany, Western Union has 4,700 sales points. Among these are 2,600 post offices and 1,900 kiosks, supermarkets and phone stores. It has been legal in Germany for retailers to take in and pay out money since 2009.

The advantage for customers is that Mom and Pop corner stores are usually open much longer than banks. And there are hardly any limits to where money can be sent – according to Westermayr, the only places that are off-limits are Somalia, Iran and North Korea.

Over the next few years, the company plans to build its German network to 10,000 sales points. Business partners are carefully selected. “They get intensive basic, regular advanced training, and they have to have a separate counter in their store where Western Union transfers are dealt with,” Westermayr explains.

However: all the training and awareness in the world can’t totally stop money laundering, she admits.

Read the article in the original language.

Photo by – Usien

All rights reserved ©Worldcrunch – in partnership with DIE WELT

Crunched by: Gail Mangold-Vine

via How Family Cash Between Germany And Turkey Started Flowing East-To-West – All News Is Global |.

February 2, 2013
UK Fast-Track Reforms For Senior Police Positions

The Home Secretary is expected to unveil a shake-up of police recruitment that will allow new starters to escape the compulsory two years on the beat.

Under current rules all police must enter at constable rank, but the proposals to be unveiled by Theresa May later are understood to include direct entry at superintendent level.

Ms May is also believed to be planning to change the law so foreign police chiefs will be able to run British forces for the first time.

The overhaul is part of a package of reforms that were drawn up by ex-rail regulator Tom Winsor in the most wide-ranging review of police pay and conditions in more than 30 years.

Under his proposals, “exceptional” applicants would have the chance to rise from civilian to inspector in just three years.

Successful businessmen and women, along with members of the armed forces and the security services, should all be encouraged to apply to the fast-track scheme, Mr Winsor said.

Mr Winsor, who is now Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary , previously said he wanted to end the notion of policing as an intellectually undemanding occupation.

He added that the “brightest and best” applicants with skills “distinctly above those of factory workers” were needed.

Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe told a policing conference earlier this month that it was time to “consider and support” direct entry.

He added that he would like to see one in 10 senior officers recruited from outside the police force.

In addition, a proposal to allow candidates from the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, among others, to front up forces in England and Wales is expected.

Current legislation prevented US “supercop” Bill Bratton, former head of the New York police, applying to take charge of the Metropolitan Police in 2011.

Mr Bratton gained a reputation for introducing bold measures to reduce crime, heading police departments in New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

In his first two years at the helm of New York Police Department, reports of serious crime dropped 27%.

But Mrs May dashed any chances of him becoming Britain’s top police officer when she underlined the importance of the Scotland Yard commissioner being a British citizen for national security reasons.

Sky News

January 30, 2013
G4S police outsource deal collapses

Multimillion-pound plans by three police forces to outsource services to the firm at the centre of the Olympics security debacle have collapsed.

Hertfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner David Lloyd said the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Strategic Alliance had discontinued negotiations with G4S.

The three forces were looking into working with G4S in a bid to save £73 million by outsourcing support functions.

The proposals involved switching 1,100 roles, including human resources, IT and finance to the security contractor.

But doubts were raised after the company was forced to admit severe failings over the Olympics security contract last summer, which led to police officers and 3,500 extra troops being deployed to support the operation.

In a statement, Mr Lloyd said: “I have always said that I would make my decision once the evidence was received and assessed. It is now clear that the G4S framework contract through Lincolnshire Police was not suitable for the unique position of the three forces.”

But he added that outsourcing to other companies would still be considered.

Mr Lloyd said: “I am already in discussion with other market providers and will continue to talk with G4S about how they can assist policing support services in Hertfordshire. My clear position is that all elements of support work will be considered for outsourcing or other use of the market. I made my decision based on evidence and on the recommendations from the Chief Constables. I still believe that substantial elements of policing support services will be best delivered by the private sector and will ensure that this option is immediately pursued.”

Kim Challis, chief executive of G4S Government and outsourcing solutions, said: “We have put forward a compelling proposition to the police forces of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire which would have guaranteed them savings of over £100 million over the next 10 years, allowing them to meet the financial challenge of the Comprehensive Spending Review without compromising on efficiency or public safety.

“Our proposition was to operate back office services at the volume and scale required to deliver significant savings to forces, enabling them to concentrate their resources on frontline roles: it was never about replacing police officers. This has already proved to be the case in Lincolnshire, where we have a successful partnership which, in less than a year, has seen us deliver savings in running costs of around 16%. We continue to work with a number of signatory forces on the Lincolnshire Police contract, including Hertfordshire, to see how we can help them to generate the savings they need.”

Sky News

January 30, 2013
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.

January 29, 2013