The Turkish Prime Minister says he is ready to block sites like You Tube and Facebook as he tries to curb the wave of damaging disclosures fuelling new allegations of corruption
Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatens to ban social networking sites Photo: AP
By AFP
Turkey’s embattled prime minister has warned that his government could ban social media networks YouTube and Facebook after a raft of online leaks added momentum to a spiralling corruption scandal.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already tightened his government’s grip over the Internet, generating criticism at home and abroad about rights in the EU-hopeful country.
“There are new steps we will take in that sphere after March 30… including a ban (on YouTube, Facebook),” Erdogan told private ATV television in an interview.
Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has come under mounting pressure since last week, when audio recordings were leaked in which Erdogan and his son allegedly discuss how to hide vast sums of money.
The Turkish premier dismissed them as a “vile” and “immoral” montage by rivals ahead of key local elections on March 30.
A series of other online leaks showed Erdogan meddling in trade deals and court cases.
Erdogan’s government has been shaken by a high-level corruption scandal that erupted in mid-December and ensnared the premier’s key political and business allies.
Erdogan has accused loyalists of ally-turned-opponent Fethullah Gulen, an influential Muslim cleric based in the United States, of orchestrating the graft probe.
The Turkish strongman has responded by purging police and passing laws to increase his grip over the Internet and the judiciary.
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.
france24.com, 02/27/2014
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan caught in corruption scandal
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a speech at a press conference in Istanbul LU ZHE/XINHUA — MCT Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/02/26/3499532/erdogan-recordings-appear-real.html#storylink=cpy
ISTANBUL — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan tightened his grip Wednesday on the judiciary and the Internet in an effort to tamp down a corruption scandal that’s rattled his government and now appears to implicate his immediate family and him.
Evidence mounted that a series of audio recordings in which Erdogan can be heard instructing his son, Bilal, to get rid of enormous sums of money are authentic, with the government firing two senior officials at the state scientific agency responsible for the security of encrypted telephones and a U.S.-based expert on encrypted communications, after examining the recordings, telling McClatchy that the recordings appear to be genuine.
Erdogan on Tuesday called the five purported conversations an “immoral montage” that had been “dubbed.” But he acknowledged that even his secure telephone had been tapped.
The only apparent “montage” was combining the five different conversations into one audio file, said Joshua Marpet, a U.S.-based cyber analyst who has testified in court on the validity of computer evidence in other Turkish criminal cases. He said there was no sign that the individual conversations had been edited.
“If it’s fake, it’s of a sophistication that I haven’t seen,” he said.
The purported telephone conversations took place over a 26-hour period, beginning on the morning of Dec. 17, when Turkish police launched raids on the houses and offices of members of the Erdogan government, businessmen and their families.
“Whatever you have in the house, get rid of it, OK?” the prime minister can be heard telling Bilal in the opening conversation. Erdogan tells Bilal that his sister Sumeyye is on her way to help him and admonishes Bilal to tell others in the family also to get rid of cash, including Sumeyye’s husband, Bilal’s brother Burak, his uncle Mustafa Erdogan, and Erdogan’s brother-in-law, Berat Albayrak.
“It will be good if you completely ‘zero’ it,” the prime minster is heard saying in the second conversation, which took place later that morning. In the fourth conversation at 11:15 that night, Bilal says he had almost “zeroed” out the money, but that there were some 30 million euros (about $39 million) left. When his father asks why he didn’t transfer all the money to Mehmet Gur, a contractor who was building the Erdogan family villa, Bilal responds: because “it takes a lot of space.”
At different points, Erdogan can be heard warning Bilal not to use a regular telephone. In the final conversation on the morning of Dec. 18, after Bilal admits that the money had not been “zeroed out,” the prime minister again says Bilal should get rid of all the funds.
“OK, Dad, but we are probably being monitored at the moment,” Bilal said. His father replied: “Son, you’re being wiretapped,” to Bilal responds: “But they are monitoring us with cameras as well.”
Two more conversations were published on the Internet Wednesday night, one purporting to capture Erdogan and Bilal discussing how much money they should expect from a Turkish businessman, and the other recording two other businessmen discussing a payoff. More are expected, at least until the country votes in municipal elections March 31.
If the recordings don’t unsettle politics in this vital U.S. ally of 78 million people, Erdogan’s new laws very well could. The legislation now being rushed through Parliament is widely viewed as Erdogan’s effort to control the corruption probe.
Late Tuesday night, Parliament, where Erdogan’s Justice and Development party holds an absolute majority, gave final approval to a much-criticized bill that gives the government the right to block Internet content, subject to a court’s approval within three days, and gives it access to personal traffic data.
Then on Wednesday President Abdullah Gul approved a controversial bill that gives Erdogan’s justice minister control over an agency that appoints judges and prosecutors and conducts investigations.
Together with a bill now already approved by a parliamentary committee giving the state MIT intelligence service access to data held by the government, private institutions and courts upon the approval of one judge, the three bills appeared to be different ways to quash future corruption investigations.
“These three laws together look like the government trying to arm itself against its critics and its opponents, in a way that restricts human rights,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, the senior Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This is reactive legislation, being rushed through…It is occurring at the time of a massive political fight, and a corruption scandal the government is trying to bury.”
Even Gul, who’s a party ally of Erdogan, had deep misgivings on the law giving the government virtual control over the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors. He said in a statement he had found 15 provisions of the original bill that were unconstitutional, but that several of them were fixed before it came to his desk. Those remaining should be addressed by Turkey’s constitutional court, he said.
Among the most surprising revelations this week was that Erdogan’s conversations with his son – about where to stash the tens of millions of dollars in the homes of family members – were conducted on secure, government-issued telephones and were tapped by another agency of the government.
The eavesdropping now appears to have been facilitated by staff at the government’s Scientific and Technological Research Council, known as Tubitek. Fikri Isik, the minister of science, industry and technology, announced Wednesday that two department heads had been dismissed and that five employees responsible for the encrypted telephones had been suspended.
He noted that Erdogan had not requested an analysis of the alleged conversations with his son but said the institute was ready to do so if asked.
At McClatchy’s request, Marpet, the managing principal of Guarded Risk, a Wilmington, Del., cyber analytics firm, examined the conversations purported to be between Erdogan and his son.
Marpet, who has a background in law enforcement and has done work for the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia as well as testifying in Turkish criminal cases, said there were small sound “spikes” in the recording when one of the speakers mentioned a place name or an individual, but they could be annotations by whoever was monitoring the recording.
Marpet said the audio levels were consistent in each call. The speaker said to be Erdogan had a more “pixilated” or mechanical sounding voice, while the speaker said to be Bilal sounded clearer throughout. This could be because of differences in the phones – pro-government newspapers identified them as CryptoPhones – or in the way they were monitored. Marpet said it was possible that Erdogan’s phone was being intercepted electronically, while Bilal’s phone might have had a listening device planted in the receiver.
Based on the judgment of a Turkish-speaking McClatchy special correspondent that the two men’s voices sounded natural and that the question and answers flowed naturally, and the tone was appropriate for the conversation, “then I’m actually thinking it’s probably real,” Marpet said.
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):
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 legitimacyand called on Turkish Prime Minister to resign immediatelyafter Erdoğan’s voice recording surfaced online.
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 daddy
2nd 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, inshallah
3rd 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 phone
4th 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 worry
5th 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’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was in Brussels last week seeking to repair relations with Europe, but the first place to look for a solution is within himself. Once hailed as the leader of a model Muslim democracy, he has created a political disaster at home, transforming Turkey into an authoritarian state that poses dangers not just for itself but for its allies in NATO, including the United States.
The latest turmoil has its roots in a political war between Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party and his former close allies who follow Fethullah Gulen, a moderate Islamic scholar who lives in Pennsylvania. The tensions erupted into the open last month with a corruption probe that led to the resignation of four government ministers and threatened to ensnare Mr. Erdogan’s family. The prime minister called the probe a “coup attempt” and blamed a “secret organization” within the judiciary and police directed by the Gulen movement and serving “foreign powers” like the United States and Israel. The government has since purged hundreds of police officials and prosecutors and sought to assert control over the judiciary. It also drafted legislation expanding the government’s power to appoint judges and prosecutors, further breaching judicial independence, and has prevented journalists from reporting freely. All the while, Mr. Erdogan has spewed endless conspiracy theories and incendiary rhetoric, even hinting at American treachery and suggesting that the American ambassador might be expelled.
The probe and Mr. Erdogan’s reaction may well be politically motivated. There are important local elections in March. But Mr. Erdogan should be insisting that the probe be fair and transparent, not trying to derail it. His ruthless ways and his attempt to crush dissent are not new, as the crackdown against demonstrators during protests last June showed. Such actions trample on democratic reforms demanded by the European Union as part of Turkey’s bid for union membership, which may be more in peril than ever, and are increasingly at odds with the ground rules for NATO members.
Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was right when he said in Brussels that the Europeans must demand that Turkey return to the rule of law. The Obama administration also needs to send a strong message about the damaging course Mr. Erdogan is pursuing. Whether Turkey nurtures its hard-won democracy, which has contributed to its impressive economic growth, or turns authoritarian is as critical to regional stability and to its NATO allies as it is to Turks.
A VERSION OF THIS EDITORIAL APPEARS IN PRINT ON JANUARY 28, 2014, IN THE INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK TIMES.
