A damaging new audio recording claiming to capture the voice of Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was posted to YouTube on Wednesday by an anonymous user who goes by the pseudonym Haramzadeler.
Tag: bribery
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“10,000,000 dollars is not enough”
A new recording of a phone call between Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan and his son Bilal has been leaked last night.
In the alleged recording, Erdoğan and his son are discussing the amount of the bribe to be taken from a businessman named Sıtkı Ayan. Erdoğan finds the offered 10 million dollars insufficient, and instructs his son not to accept unless Ayan provides the amount he promised.
Sıtkı Ayan is the owner of SOM Petrol, a London-based corporation that owns oil and gas wells in various countries and turns over billions of dollars every year. Turang Transit Transportation, also owned by Mr. Ayan, was awarded the government contract to build a $11.5 billion pipeline to transport natural gas from Iran and Turkmenistan to Europe. The investment was subsidised by the government, and the corporation was held exempt from VAT and various other taxes and duties.According to the whistleblowers who leaked the call, Mr. Ayan pays regular bribes to Prime Minister Erdoğan, just like the “other businessmen”.
Transcript:
Bilal Erdoğan: Mr. Sıtkı came yesterday, saying he couldn’t do the transfer properly, that he currently has about 10 or so (million dollars), that he can give it whenever we want…
Tayyip Erdoğan: No no, don’t you take it.
Bilal Erdoğan: No I won’t, but I don’t know what we’ll do now.
Tayyip Erdoğan: No, don’t take it. If he’s going to bring what he promised, then let him bring it. If not, then no need. Others can bring it, so why can’t he, huh? What do they think is? But they are falling now, they’ll fall on our laps, don’t you worry.
Bilal Erdoğan: OK, daddy.Click here to listen to the recording (in Turkish):
Alternative link:
watch?v=4GZBw369nEM -
Leaked Recording of Turkish PM Erdogan Instructing Son to Hide Huge Sums of Money
Turkey is shaking with the leaked alleged voice recording of PM Tayyip Erdoğan and his son.
In the new voice recording, Erdoğan and his son Bilal allegedly discuss during five wiretapped phone conversations on plans how to hide huge sums of cash on the day when police raided a number of venues as part of a corruption investigation that has implicated sons of three Turkish ministers, businessmen and chief of the state bank. At the beginning of the phone conversation, the Prime Minister briefs his son Bilal about the raid and asks him to “zero” the amount (at least $1 billion cash) stashed at five houses. The authenticity of the recordings has not been verified.
Hakan Fidan, undersecretary of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) was immediately called in prime ministry. Prime ministry office was also published an immediate response, claiming the recording to be a “defile montage” and they will press charges.
After an emergency meeting, Turkish main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has said the Turkish government has lost its legitimacy and called on Turkish Prime Minister to resign immediately after Erdoğan’s voice recording surfaced online.
Leaked recording
http://www.turkishnews.com/videos/ videos/ erdogani-bitiren-ses-kaydi/ Dec 17, 2013 08:02 a.m.
RTE: Are you home son?
Bilal E(son): Yes father
RTE: Now! This morning [they] made an operation. Ali Agaoglu, Reza Zerrab, Erdogan’s [Bayraktar-ex minister] son, Zafer’s [Caglayan – ex-minister] son, Muammer’s [Guler – ex-minister] son, etc.. All their houses are being searched now.
BE: Tell again, daddy
RTE: I’m saying that Muammer’s son, Zafer’s son, Erdogan’s son, Ali Agaoglu, Reza Zerrab etc they are searching the houses of 18 people under a big corruption operation thing.
BE: yes
RTE: OK? Now, what I say is, you take everything that you have in the house out. OK?
BE: What can I have on me dad! There is your money in the safe
RTE: That’s what I am saying. Now, I am sending your sister. OK?
BE: You are sending who?
RTE: Your sister, I’m saying.
BE: Eh, OK
RTE: Then,… She has that information, OK. Talk with your big brother
BE: Yes
RTE: On him,,, Let’s do…, talk with your uncle too, he should also take out, also talk to your [maternal] uncle, he should also…
BE: What should we do with these daddy, where should we put them?
RTE: To specific places, to some specific places… do it
(A woman’s voice on background saying “Berat”)
BE: Berat also has some
RTE: That’s what I am saying. Now, get together, go get your uncle, I don’t know if Uncle Ziya has some, OK? Also immediately [inform] your brother Burak too.
NE: OK father. You mean Sumeyye, I mean take out, Sumeyye will tell me where to take them?
RTE: Yes, fine. C’mon now, do [it] think about yours among yourselves with your uncle, etc
NE: on what to do?
RTE: Yes, yes, let’s contact fast, until 10.00. Because the issue is…
NE: OK father
RTE: OK? Keep in touch
NE: OK daddy2nd call 11.17
NE: Father, We got together with Brother Hasan etc. Brother Berat, my uncle, we are together, thinking about it. Berat has another idea. He says that let’s give some of it to Faruk [Kalyoncu] for the other “business/thing” so he can process them like the previous ones. Shall we do it, we can solve a big amount with this.
RTE: That may be
NE: OK. For the other part, because we started a business partnership with Mehmet Gur, we thought of giving it to him saying “keep it, as the projects come you can use from that. This way, we will be able to dissolve and move the rest to somewhere else.
RTE: OK, fine, as long as you do…
NE: OK
RTE: Did Sumeyye arrive?
NE: She arrived home, she’ll now come here. OK daddy, we will sort this out today, inshallah (with God’s permission). Anything else?
RTE: It would be good if you do… If you can dissolve them all.
BE: Yes, we will dissolve them all, inshallah3rd call 15.39
RTE: Did you do the other tasks I gave you?
BE: We will finish them in the evening. We sorted some out; We sorted the Berat part, now we will first handle the part with Mehmet Gur and the rest, we will do that when it gets dark.
RTE:….
BE: Inshallah
RTE: What did Sumeyye do?
BE: She took them out, brought, we talked, etc.
RTE: Did she sort both sides?
BE: I think so daddy, she said she emptied both.
RTE: Both sides
BE: Yes, she said both of them, but you mean this by saying both sides, right?
RTE: Whatever. OK, fine
BE: What time will you arrive?
RTE: About 12
BE: Have a safe journey
RTE: Do not talk on the phone4th call 23.15
BE: Hi daddy, I am calling to… we did [it] mostly. Eee, did you call me daddy?
RTE: No I did not, you called me
BE: I was called from a secret number
RTE: By saying mostly, did you fully dissolve it
BE: We did not zeroized it yet daddy. Let me explain.. We still have a 30 million euros that we could not yet dissolve. Berat thought of something.. There was an additional 25 million dollars that Ahmet Calik should receive. They say let’s give this [to him] there. When the money comes, we do [something], they say. And with the remaining money we can buy a flat from Sehrizar, he says. What do you say, father?
RTE: ….
(background soun: Ayyy)
BE: Daddy
RTE: Is Sumeyye with you?
BE: Yes with me, should I call her?
RTE: No, there was another sound, that’s why I asked
BE: Umm.. I mean, he can transfer 35 million dollars to Calik and buy a flat from Sherizar with the remaining.
RTE: Whatever, we will sort it
BE: Should we do it like this?
RTE: OK do it
BE: Do you want them all dissolved father, or do you want some money for yourself
RTE: No, it cannot stay, son. You could transfer that to the other, with Mehmet you could transfer it there…
BE: Yes, we gave to them. We gave 20 to them
RTE: For God’s sake, first you should’ve transferred you could then do…
BE: we were able to give this much for now, it is hard already, it takes too much space. We are putting some of it to another place, we gave part of it to Tunc, and then…
RTE: did you transfer all to Tunc?
BE: (Sumeyye, can you come) Where, father?
RTE: To Tunc, I say, did you transfer all to Tunc?
BE: They asked, I guess he said that he could take 10 million euros.
RTE: Whatever. Do not talk this like this on this.
BE: OK, then, we will sort it as such
RTE: Ok do it. I am not able to come tonight, I will stay in Ankara
BE:OK, we are sorting it out. You do not worry5th call
18.12.2013 10.58
RTE. I wondered if everything is fine, so I called
BE: No, nothing. We finished the tasks you gave us, with the help of the God
RTE: Is it all zeroed?
BE: Fully, I mean saying zeroed, how should I put it? I had Samandira and Maltepe’s money, 730.000 USD and 300.000 TL. I will handle these too. We owe 1 million TL to Faruk İsik (AKP MP); I will give those to him and tell him to transfer the rest to the academy.
RTE: Do not talk openly
BE: Should’t I talk?
RTE: Do not talk, OK?
BE: OK daddy
RTE: I mean, do not keep anything on you, whatever it is Samandira or whatever… Send it to where it needs to be, where do you keep it?
BE: OK daddy, but I think currently we are under surveillance
RTE: What have I been telling to you since the very beginning!
BE: But is it the bodyguard team? Who is following us father?
RTE: Son, you are being tapped
BE: But they are also visually monitoring, they say
RTE: That may be true. Now, we did some things (meaning intervention) in Istanbul security -
Turkey faces a ‘war’ within its borders as Prime Minister Erdogan cracks down on opponents
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is firing judges, sacking policemen and raising concerns about the fragility of the country’s democracy according to diplomats and academics
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters at the parliament in Ankara, Turkey Photo: AP
By Ruth Sherlock, Istanbul
Posters of the candidates plaster the walls of Istanbul’s Qassim Pasha district, urging residents to vote in local and national elections later this year.
For the past decade the electoral decision within the ramshackle apartment blocks and tea houses of this neighbourhood – one of the poorest in the city – was a foregone conclusion. Recep Tayyip Erdogan,Turkey’s prime minister, grew up here and its residents are proud supporters of their man.
Now, however, a different mood is quietly infiltrating the air.
“Erdogan was a perfect leader but now we need someone new,” said Zulfu Yaroman, 65, a resident supporter of the ruling AKP Justice and Development party. “Erdogan can stay in the party but I don’t want him to head it any longer.”
So how is it that Mr Erdogan, the ultimate populist who was once awarded the People’s choice for Time 2011 Person Of The Year, who has enjoyed 11-years of unhindered rule has so mortally offended even his most loyal support base?
The answer lies in corruption scandals that have seen Mr Erdogan’s closest ministers, their families, and even his own son becoming embroiled. And it also lies in a furious response by the government, ordering sweeping arrests of police officers, the prosecution and the judiciary.
The scandal is rocking Turkish politics, even, on Thursday, prompting fist-fights among politicians in parliament.
Tezcan, a member of parliament from the main opposition Republican People’s Party, scuffles with ruling Justice and Development Party’s parliamentarian Saral (REUTERS) The response to the scandals – a mixture of accusations of bribery and passing business contracts to family members – has left Mr Erdogan open to criticism of appearing increasingly autocratic and paranoid about holding on to power, at whatever cost. So serious is this charge that international observers question whether the country’s democracy is at threat.
“In Turkey you get the disappointing sense that there is insecurity at work,” a diplomat from one EU country told the Telegraph. “We are a champion of Turkey’s accession to the EU, but this threatens the momentum we’ve had in making that happen.”
This week saw the biggest overhaul of the judiciary in the country’s history when Mr Erdogan fired or reassigned 96 judges. Among these men were several who had spearheaded the corruption probe.
In all Mr Erdogan has purged more 2000 police officers from their post, replacing them with his own appointees. He is trying to push a bill through parliament that would give to his loyalists the vital role of appointments in the judiciary.
However, many agree, it is Mr Erdogan’s choleric temperament when faced with these challenges that is now most damaging his reputation as a strong progressive leader.
When under stress, both during the popular protests at Gezi park last year and during this corruption probe, Turkey’s premier has “lashed out”.
“There isn’t a politician in government that hasn’t felt the full weight of the prime minister,” said one source with contacts in the prime ministry.
Mr Erdogan’s AKP party members appeared to show their temper on Thursday, beating in parliament Bülent Tezcan, the main opposition party’s deputy chairman until he had to be admitted to hospital, after he raised the sensitive topic Bilal Erdogan, the prime minister’s son, being implicated in the corruption probe.
In public speeches Mr Erdogan has unhelpfully associated himself with autocrats, employing the fallback position used by strongmen – past and present – of the Middle East, of dismissing his problem, the corruption probe as a “dirty foreign plot”.
Based on little more than a rumour circulating in the Turkish press that Francis J. Ricciardone, the American envoy was “meddling” in domestic affairs during the corruption probe Mr Erdogan attacked foreign diplomats in Turkey. He said ambassadors should “mind their own business”, and that “we have no obligation to keep you in our country”.
(AFP) With a hint of exasperation, an EU diplomat told the Telegraph said: “When there has been an internal problem in Turkey, to deflect attention from the government, a foreign threat is invoked.”
But the real reason behind Turkey’s political turmoil is much more complicated.
It is rooted in a bitter struggle between Mr Erdogan and Fethulleh Gulen, a spiritual leader who now lives in self-imposed exile in a Pennsylvania redoubt but whose movement, Hizmet, remains powerful in Turkey.
The war between Mr Erdogan and Mr Gulen comes after a decade of friendship, in which the two men worked together to advance the other’s interests. Mr Erdogan gave opportunities to Hizmet’s members, staffing his offices with its followers. And in turn Mr Gulen used his sizeable connections in the business community and with foreign diplomats to promote Mr Erdogan’s tenure at home and abroad.
They worked together to defang the Turkish military, whose generals were notorious for plotting coup attempts against the country’s political rulers. But once the threat of the military was gone, the Gulen-Erdogan alliance broke down as they began to vie for power among themselves.
“Mr Erdogan allowed Gulen to staff his offices with Hizmet’s followers. But now the alliance is broken, he fears that they are more loyal to Gulen than to him; that the people who helped him [against the military] are plotting to destroy him. He feels threatened,” one source inside the government said.
Government officials say the decision by the judiciary to publicly announce the corruption charges in an election year is evidence that the probe is political, and they claim that behind the judges lies the influence of Mr Gulen who is using the probe as a tool to destroy the prime minister.
Whatever the truth it is incontrovertible that the recent turmoil has exposed as cosmetic many of the reforms that have built Mr Erdogan reputation as a moderniser for Turkey.
Despite sweeping constitutional reforms, which had made Turkey’s ruling system more compatible with the democratic requirements for entry to the EU and had improved the confidence of foreign investors to come to the country, the scandal has exposed a judiciary and police still riven with political alliances.
“What is happening in this process is the erosion of Turkey as a state. It is a meltdown. We see institutions are no longer dealing with one another as is written in the constitution,” said Soly Ozel, a political scientist at Kadir Has university.
The political turmoil has been deeply damaging to Turkey’s economy. The Turkish Lira has plunged almost 10% per cent since mid-December, as investors worry about the country’s future.
That is perhaps the most serious concern for Mr Erdogan, who faces elections this year, either for prime minister or president depending on what he decides to stand for.
Mr Ozel said: “I don’t believe he will lose his election. He remains the most powerful politician in the country and he constantly goes for broke.
So far he has won but at the end of this fight it will be like the World War One; even the winners will not be winners.”
telegraph.co.uk, 23 Jan 2014
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Fresh UK-Saudi Bribery Scandal
The British government is reluctant to launch an investigation into a multi-million pounds bribery scandal involving a British defence firm and the Saudi royal family.Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has revealed that a British defence firm deposited millions of pounds into a bank account in Switzerland belonging to one of the members of the Saudi royal family.
The deposit was made to ensure that British Ministry of Defence would grant a two-billion pounds contract to GPT, a British wing of EADS, the biggest aerospace defence company in Europe.
Under the contract, GPT was responsible for modernizing communications and cyberwarfare equipment of the Saudi royal palaces and National Guard, which helped the Bahraini regime to suppress the protesters in May.
In 2008, a whistleblower told senior staff at EADS about the bribery scandal saying the deposits “may be illegal… I am flagging up to you a possible illegal transaction and seeking your guidance.”
Furthermore, another whistleblower briefed SFO on the scandal telling them that 11.5 million pounds have been deposited into a Swiss bank account.
The attorney general, Dominic Grieve, who was informed about the scandal by SFO, is to decide whether to open an investigation into the alleged bribes made by GPT.
Nevertheless, he may decide to refrain from launching an inquiry for the sake of the British firm’s interests.
In a similar case in 2007, the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, decided to drop corruption charges against the arms company BAE after then-Prime Minister Tony Blair exerted pressure on him.
BAE had also bribed the then head of Saudi air force, Prince Turki-bin-Nasser, in order to secure a 40 billion pounds contract to sell jets to the Saudis.
www.presstv.ir, OCTOBER 10 2011
