ISTANBUL–Edelman has formally launched a startup operation in Turkey, led by new hire Serra Türk Büyükfirat.
Büyükfirat was previously head of brand and communications at Türk Ekonomi Bankasi (TEB), a banking joint venture with BNP Paribas. Prior to joining TEB, Büyükfirat oversaw corporate communications at AVEA, a leading mobile network operator in Turkey.
She has also held a number of senior agency positions at global firms including Wunderman and Young & Rubicam International.
Chris Dobson, Edelman MD of strategic and emerging markets in EMEA, said the firm’s move into Turkey was driven by increasing demand from clients.
“Opening in Turkey is a crucial step for Edelman” said Dobson. “Turkey’s rise as a key growth market and a pivotal commercial and geo-political player has been well documented. The demand from our clients for an Edelman presence here has been significant and growing in recent years.
“I’m therefore delighted that we have become the first truly international network agency in our field to enter the market organically, and that someone of Serra’s stature, experience and multi-sector background will be leading our business,” he added.
ISTANBUL—Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey suggested Wednesday the U.S should punish diplomats who reported claims in leaked State Department cables that he and his family are corrupt, and said he planned to take legal action against them.
In a sometimes furious televised address at the start of an investment conference in Ankara, Mr. Erdogan said, “My friends in the judiciary and we are working to do what is necessary about these diplomats. We spoke to the U.S. They did apologize, but it is not enough. The U.S. should do what is necessary about these diplomats.”
“Those who smear us will be crushed under their accusations; they will end, disappear,” Mr. Erdogan said, adding that one person who previously claimed he made $1 billion in kickbacks while he was mayor of Istanbul in the 1990s was now awaiting trial as a member of an alleged terrorist organization. The group, known as Ergenekon, is accused of attempting to topple the government, among other crimes.
“I don’t have a single kurus in Swiss banks. If you prove this, I will resign. But will you stay in your posts?” he said. A kurus is a hundredth of a Turkish lira.
A senior aide to Mr. Erdogan clarified that lawyers from the justice ministry were examining the feasibility of suing under international, U.S. and Turkish law.
The decision to seek legal action after first playing down the cables and attacking the credibility of WikiLeaks appears to have been triggered by domestic politics ahead of elections next June, and suggests the leaks could have continued fallout for U.S. diplomacy. Opposition party leaders are demanding that Mr. Erdogan and his government answer the claims of widespread government corruption in the cables.
Among cables published so far regarding Turkey is one dated Dec. 30, 2004, from former U.S. ambassador Eric Edelman, in which he writes about widespread corruption, naming several ministers from the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP.
“We have heard from two contacts that Erdogan has eight accounts in Swiss banks; his explanations that his wealth comes from the wedding presents guests gave his son and that a Turkish businessman is paying the educational expenses of all four Erdogan children in the U.S. purely altruistically are lame.”
Mr. Edelman retired from the State Department last year and is now a nonresident scholar at the Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Contacted through a spokeswoman, he declined to comment on Mr. Erdogan’s remarks or on the WikiLeaks cables Wednesday.
In another cable earlier in 2004, Mr. Edelman reported claims “that have never been proved” that Mr. Erdogan had made his fortune by accepting kickbacks as mayor of Istanbul and that he “directly” benefited from the privatization of the state oil-refinery company Tupras.
An unsigned February 2002 cable report named Mr. Erdogan’s brother Mustafa and several close friends of the prime minister as beneficiaries in an Iranian natural-gas pipeline deal. The deal went to a joint venture in which the Turkish party would be a little-known company called Som Petrol.
Mr. Erdogan on Wednesday also singled out a cable that accused his son-in-law Sadik Albayrak of embezzlement. “The man doesn’t know about anything else but writing; they made him a builder,” Mr. Erdogan said.
Addressing opposition leaders, Mr. Erdogan said it wasn’t for him to disprove such claims, but for the people who made or repeated them to prove them. He accused the U.S. ambassador, apparently Mr. Edelman, of bearing a grudge and suggested there was jealousy involved at Turkey’s success in securing popularity and influence in the Middle East, Kosovo and other countries.
“If you respect your country and yourself, you will not embrace smears thrown out by foreigners at the prime minister of this country,” Mr. Erdogan said. “An honorable media organization would stand up and ask… ‘Honorary Prime Minister, is there something like this. If there is, we will research it.’ But if you take action without asking, it would be immorality and worthlessness.”
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, responded swiftly on Wednesday. “If [Mr. Erdogan] is saying, ‘I cannot call the U.S. to account, thus I should be angry at the opposition party instead’, that is not right,” Mr. Kilicdaroglu said. “This is a serious claim… It is said that he has eight different accounts in Swiss banks. Somebody has to answer this.”
(CNN) — As the fallout continues from the release of thousands of diplomatic cables on the WikiLeaks website, Turkey’s prime minister is threatening to file a lawsuit over comments made about him in one of the messages by the U.S. ambassador to his country.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he plans to sue over remarks from then-Ambassador Eric Edelman in 2004 suggesting that the prime minister concealed his wealth in Swiss bank accounts. Visibly angry, Erdogan told an audience in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday that he wanted the U.S. administration to take action against the diplomats who had “slandered” him.
“The United States should ask its diplomats to make an explanation because no diplomat can accuse a country with slanders and misinterpretations,” he said.
“This is the United States’ problem, not ours… Those who have slandered us will be crushed under these claims, will be finished and will disappear,” Erdogan said later, according to Turkish media reports.
In a cable dated December 12, 2004, the U.S. ambassador in Ankara at the time wrote a less-than-flattering profile of Erdogan, who had recently become prime minister amid anxiety among Western governments about his “Islamist tendencies.”
The note sent to Washington by Edelman said the new prime minister’s “hunger for power reveals itself in a sharp authoritarian style and deep distrust of others.” Erdogan’s advisors were characterized as “sycophantic (but contemptuous)” in the missive. The cable also spoke of the prime minister’s “susceptibility to Islamist theories.”
“He indulges in pronounced pro-Sunni prejudices and in emotional reactions that prevent the development of coherent, practical domestic or foreign policies,” the cable added.
CNN calls to Edelman for comment were not immediately returned.
The cable then discussed the alleged bank accounts. While apparently offering no evidence they existed, it continued: “We have heard from two contacts that Erdogan has eight accounts in Swiss banks; his explanations that his wealth comes from the wedding presents guests gave his son and that a Turkish businessman is paying the educational expenses of all four Erdogan children in the U.S. purely altruistically are lame.”
Erdogan vowed to resign if it could be shown he had bank accounts in Switzerland.
“I don’t have a God’s penny in Swiss banks to prove. Now, I am telling the leader of the opposition and others, if such a thing would be proven, I would not stay in this position, I would not remain a parliamentarian.”
via Turkey’s prime minister will sue over diplomat’s remarks – CNN.com.
ISTANBUL–Edelman has formally launched a startup operation in Turkey, led by new hire Serra Türk Büyükfirat.
