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Tag: Recep Tayyip Erdogan

12th president of Turkey

  • Turkey’s PM Erdoğan Uses Unique, Unorthodox Way to Address Corruption Allegations

    Turkey’s PM Erdoğan Uses Unique, Unorthodox Way to Address Corruption Allegations

    By Ferruh Demirmen

    As the adage, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat” goes, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdoğan recently found a remarkable way to respond to corruption allegations surrounding his administration. His reaction to the allegations was far from building public confidence.

    When the corruption news implicating those close to Mr. Erdoğan broke out in the Turkish media on December 17, the number one question in Turkey was how the PM would react. After all, the sons of three cabinet ministers, a local mayor from his AK Party, the head of the state-owned Halkbank, a construction mogul close to the PM, and a businessman doing a clandestine gold-for-gas trade with Iran, were snatched from their homes in the early hours of the morning on charges of bribery and money laundering. All together 52 suspects were rounded up for questioning.

    Images in the press of piles of dollar bills stuffed in shoe boxes and money-counting machines found in the homes of some of the accused were both riveting and nauseating.

    All the indications were that Mr. Erdoğan had not been informed of the arrests in advance, and was caught by surprise.

    Press news were raging with speculations that more arrests, involving others close to Erdoğan including his sons, were in the offing.

    Accusing a “Criminal Gang”

    The first reaction coming from an angry Erdoğan was to point to a ‘criminal gang.”

    But not a criminal gang involved in bribe and thievery, as one might have expected. It was a “gang” with foreign connections, out to topple his government, he said.

    Although Erdoğan did not name the illicit organization, it was widely known that the “gang” he alluded to was “Cemaat,” the organization of the reclusive Turkish Islamic clergyman Fethullah Gülen living in Pennsylvania.

    Cynics observed that Erdoğan’s government had cooperated remarkably well with the Cemaat over the past 11 years in prosecuting, muzzling and imprisoning hundreds of military officers, writers, and academicians on trumped up charges of plotting to overthrow the government. It was like an alliance made in heaven. Now the Cemaat was an enemy.

    Mr. Erdoğan’s charges of a criminal gang was reminiscent of an “interest lobby” that he claimed was responsible for the “Gezi Park” protests that erupted across Turkey, especially Istanbul, in May and June. A conspiracy orchestrated by the “interest lobby” was out to topple his government, he said at that time.

    “He does no wrong, commits no ill, means no harm; but it is always someone else – a foreign hand, in fact – that is the problem,” mused observers, cynically.

    “Clean-up” in the Police Establishment

    Mr. Erdoğan knew that throwing salvos at others alone was not going to defuse the situation. His next move, surprisingly, was to fire the police bureau chiefs in Istanbul that were behind the arrests. Five police bureau chiefs were sacked on the spot and replaced by new appointees. The head of the Istanbul Police Department also lost his job. To expedite the replacement of the top policeman, Erdoğan had his new hand-picked new appointee flown from to Ankara to Istanbul in his private jet.

    One of the first acts by the new appointee was to establish an army of inspectors to look into the police operations in Istanbul and bring charges, if deemed necessary.

    The reaction of the PM to the police arrests was in sharp contrast to his reaction during the Gezi Park protests when the police acted with brutal force against the protestors. Six people lost their lives due to excessive force by the police. At that time the PM applauded the police, and even rewarded them for “job well done.”

    That was the police charged with quelling street protests. The police that was the target of Erdoğan’s fury last week was law enforcement officers working with prosecutors on criminal investigations behind closed doors.

    Interestingly, the PM did not ask the resignation of the cabinet ministers whose sons were implicated, or of the minister in charge of EU affairs Egemen Bağış, reportedly also embroiled in bribery.

    With press reports that arrests may be made outside Istanbul as well, Erdoğan expanded the reshuffling of the police organization. Thirty more police chiefs, mainly in Istanbul and Ankara, were replaced. The government wanted to make sure there would be no further “surprise arrests.”

    An angry Erdoğan also threatened to expel foreign envoys in Turkey for plotting against his government. “We don’t have to host you in this country,” fumed an animated PM. While not naming names, the barb was aimed at US ambassador Francis Ricciardone, who said that the US had warned Halkbank in the past about its connection to Iran.

    It must have slipped the PM’s mind that his AK Party ascended to power in November 2002 with the full support and blessing of the US – a support that has remained virtually unabated till this day.

    A Déjà Vu

    A further development was the addition of two new prosecutors to the ongoing graft investigation in Istanbul. It was explained that the move was prompted by the “heavy load” in the investigation – notwithstanding that no such concern had been raised by the sitting prosecutor. The real purpose behind the move, however, observers noted, was to dilute the authority of the sitting prosecutor and derail the ongoing investigation.

    This was a déjà vu. The move was reminiscent of the way the prosecutorial authority in the famous “lighthouse scandal,” also known as the “corruption of the century,” was seized by the appointment of two new prosecutors. The three sitting prosecutors handling that investigation were dismissed, and the indictment against the suspects (closely linked to the AK Party) was dropped by the new prosecutors for lack of evidence. The original prosecutors were then charged with “misconduct.” (All 3 were exonerated). That was in 2011.

    The lighthouse case involved donations to an Islamic charity, had its roots in Germany, and ended with convictions in Germany. According to German authorities, the main culprits were in Turkey.

    Extreme Measure

    As the crisis deepened, the next act by the PM and the government was even more extraordinary. In a midnight move, a law enforcement by-law was amended to require the police and the gendarmerie to inform their administrative superiors and chief prosecutor’s office before conducting investigative operations. Prosecutors conducting a probe were also required to receive consent from the chief prosecutor.

    The new by-law violated the secrecy of law enforcement operations, effectively eroding the separation of judicial and executive powers.

    Cynics tweeted – and cartoons in the press humored likewise – that the new curbs imposed on law enforcement was like warning the thieves before arresting them.

    In the meantime, the press was barred from entering the Istanbul Police Department, and the PM instructed the provincial mayors to keep a tab on the local police.

    Repercussions

    The repercussions to the new by-law were swift. A number of legal entities including Turkey’s Union of Bar Associations and the Turkish Syndicate of Prosecutors lodged lawsuits with the Council of State for the annulment of the new by-law on Constitutional grounds, underscoring that such provisions can only be implemented in totalitarian regimes.

    No sooner had the new by-law been put in effect, than the Istanbul prosecutor Muammer Akkaş released a bomb-shell written statement. Akkaş had prepared a summons/arrest list that he had given to the police on December 25 for instructions for a second wave of operation scheduled to take place after the New Year’s eve. But the police was not following his instructions, he said.

    He had noticed leaks to the press, and was concerned that the evidentiary material in the probe would be tampered with.

    The scale of financial irregularities involved in the second operation was reportedly massive, circa $100 billion, implicating 42 persons. Among the suspects was the PM’s son Bilal Erdoğan.

    Akkaş said his probe was blocked, and he had been removed from the case. The copy of the summons/arrest warrant for Bilal Erdoğan, with the enforcement date marked as January 2, 2014, appeared in the press.

    The PM was quick to denounce Akkaş, calling him a disgrace for the judiciary.

    Soon after, the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) released a majority opinion backing Akkaş’ concerns, stating that the new by-law violated the Constitutional edict of the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers.

    What Now?

    The high-stakes corruption allegations have rocked Turkey, with ramifications extending from politics to economics to public trust. It is a rapidly shifting ground. At the writing of this article, barely 10 days after the scandal broke out, the PM is in his seat, three ministers from the cabinet have resigned, and 10 new cabinet ministers have been replaced.

    One of the resigned ministers, Erdoğan Bayraktar, in charge of environment and urban works and a long-time associate of the PM, said the PM had approved the construction projects that are under investigation, and should also resign. It was a serious charge from an ex-confidant.

    All the while people have taken to the streets calling for the resignation of the government, the Council of State has issued an injunction to halt the implementation of the new by-law, and President Abdullah Gül bafflingly maintaining his silence. A sense of disbelief and political malaise has permeated the air.

    Gül’s silence can perhaps be explained by the fact he himself was embroiled in corruption (“lost trillions”) allegations years ago. The case was not adjudicated in a court because of Gül’s parliamentary immunity.

    At this point it is anybody’s guess whether the government will weather the scandal without further fallout. If it does, however, there is no doubt a thick cloud of suspicion and distrust will hang over the PM and his government.

    Out of this sordid affair, one thing that stands out, inarguably, is the way that the PM Erdoğan has handled the situation. In a democracy where the rule of law prevails, and public trust counts, the scandalous details that surfaced, while not yet proven in a court of law, would have been more than sufficient for a PM and the government to resign. This is what credibility and accountability is about.

    Instead, the PM has resorted to unusual and extraordinary measures to hold on to power that failed to build public confidence. Cursing others and blaming conspiracies and foreign elements for imaginary coup attempts makes no sense. None of this augurs well for Turkish democracy.

  • TREASON TIME WITH TRAVIS

    TREASON TIME WITH TRAVIS

    I’m standin’ here. You make the move. You make the move. It’s your move. Huh?
    You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? 
    Well, then who the hell else are you talkin’ to? 
    You talkin’ to me? Well, I’m the only one here.

    Travis Bickle,  TAXI DRIVER

    TR32

    TREASON TIME WITH TRAVIS

     

    TREASON: The betrayal of one’s own country by waging war against it or by consciously or purposely acting to aid its enemies.

    MISPRISION OF TREASON:The deliberate concealment of one’s knowledge of a treasonable act or a felony.

    Hey Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu! Hey you! I’m talkin’ to you! I’m talkin’ to you, Mister Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The leader of the that sissy-boy “opposition” party! What are you doing? All the time backin’ off, backin’ off, talkin’ away at the parliament like it all means somethin’. It don’t mean nothin’ to me and people like me, that’s for sure. Takin’ it, takin’ it for years you’ve been takin’ it from that religious mob that lies, cheats and steals like a plague of cancer. And you, playin’ word games with them while they destroy your country. Not smart, Kılıçdaroğlu, not smart at all. Them guys stole everything…everything, even the mosques and the police and the army for God’s sake. And where the hell were you, Mr. Opposition Party Big Shot? They even stole the mountains and the forests and the trees and the streets and the air and they even got the big ships. And you? You got the baby carriage and the garbage pail. And you’re the only one there, you’re the boss. So pay attention, understand? I’m talkin’ to you…man-to-man, I’m talkin’ to you! You got that? Good, because here’s a man who won’t take it anymore. Not from these government criminals destroyin’ our country while you and your rabbits sit on your collective duffs. They embarrass me, these people, so stupid they are. They think we’re stupid too and that’s the worst part. That, and lookin’ at you and your boys hangin’ around all day in them big red chairs waitin’ for the word to come from their big boss. Then you all jump up like hungry dogs at chicken bones. You try to be clever in your retorts but you don’t say nothin’ and you embarrass us a second time. So do somethin’, Kılıçdaroğlu, somethin’ with courage. I drive a taxi all day and all night. And that takes courage. So you do likewise, be brave and earn some respect. Walk out of that cesspool of a parliament. Leave shoe boxes on your desks as complementary mementos to the thieves-in-charge. Then all of you take a hike over to the criminal court and file those treason and misprision of treason cases against the gangster government. And throw in the American ambassador and his fellow agents for good luck. And we the people will hail you in the streets.

    We’ll show them, won’t we Kemal? You’re the main opposition man! You can be the big dude prime minister even without kissin’ America’s feet. And I’m gonna get you in shape right now. Too much sittin’ is ruinin’ your body. Too much abuse has gone on for too long. From now on, it will be fifty push-ups each morning, fifty pull-ups. There’ll be no more pills, there’ll be no more bad food, no more destroyers of your body. From now on, it will be total organization. Every muscle must be tight. I’m one of your biggest supporters, you know. I tell everybody that comes in this taxi that they have to vote for you. You understand? Are you still lookin’ at me? Good, because I’m lookin’ at you…hard!

    Mr. Travis Bickle
    Somewhere in traffic in Istanbul
    25 December 2013

  • Turkey Will Either Lose Erdogan or Democracy

    Turkey Will Either Lose Erdogan or Democracy

    By Marc Champion 

    Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

    There are two reasons Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may not survive the current government corruption scandals in Turkey. And if he does, the cost to the “Turkish model” will be enormous.

    The first is, well, the corruption charges. An important key to the success of the AK, or Justice and Development, Party that Erdogan helped to create in 2001 lay in its initials: AK means “white” in Turkish, and it can also mean “pure.” Turks were sick of the unaccountable corruption of previous governments. The AK Party rode a promise of purity to power.

    Suddenly, the AK Party is looking decidedly grubby. Yes, the 89 people who have been detained so far in the corruption and money-laundering probe are all innocent until proven otherwise. And yes, the prosecutors in charge are the same ones who based the so-called Sledgehammer trial against the military on forged documents. Still, the three simultaneous cases that have been initiated, as outlined in the news media, are damaging.

    One case, for example, involves about $70 million worth of alleged bribes connected to an Azerbaijani businessman, who is accused of running cash into Russia and trading gold into Iran and is now under arrest. Police found $4.5 million stuffed into shoe boxes at the home of another suspect, Suleyman Aslan, the general manager of state-run Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS. That’s a lot of money even for Jimmy Choos. This is the same bank that was the focus of a May 14 letter, signed by 47 U.S. congressmen, complaining about its gold-swap financing of trade with Iran.

    So far, no cabinet ministers have been arrested, but the sons of three have been detained. According to the latest Turkish news media reports, prosecutors have asked parliament to lift the immunity that was granted to their fathers as well as a fourth minister.

    All of this makes Erdogan vulnerable. He was already weakened because the coalition of religious conservatives, nationalists and liberals he had built since 2001 had disintegrated by the end of this summer’s Gezi Park protests. Now he is also at war with former close allies among his religious conservative base, a group led by faith leader Fetullah Gulen.

    Precisely because Erdogan has concentrated power so closely around himself in just a few men, any perception that they are corrupt will immediately infect his personal image and support. This is why Erdogan hasn’t fired the four ministers: He says the allegations against them are part of a plot to unseat him. My guess is that he’s right, but his response gets to the second reason Erdogan may not survive, despite being far stronger than Gulen: himself.

    Erdogan is an extraordinary politician, one of the most intuitive I have met. Yet since the AK Party’s third thumping election victory in 2011, when he declared his “master period” to be at hand, Erdogan appears to have lost the political compass that once told him when to be pragmatic and cut his losses. His fight-or-flight response now includes only one — to fight.

    In response to the allegations, Erdogan has fired dozens of Istanbul police chiefs involved in the arrests, the same ones he defended and praised over their handling of the Gezi Park protests earlier this year. He says the corruption cases are part of the same plot he detected behind the Gezi Park protests, conducted by the same dark morass of international conspirators. Except that now the police who cracked down on the protesters must be part of the conspiracy, too.

    This is just untenable. To make it stick and purge Gulen’s supporters from the police force, prosecutor’s office and courts, Erdogan will have to crack down in ways that will destroy what remains of Turkey’s independent law enforcement institutions and media freedoms. That will deal a huge blow to the so-called Turkish model, the idea that Turkey had cracked the code for implementing genuine democracy in the Muslim world. And that would be a tragedy, because the Turkish model is real and important, if overhyped, oversimplified and already under strain.

    There is another possible path that Erdogan can follow. He can take this opportunity to sack some of the worst ministers in his cabinet, who also happen to be touched by the corruption scandal:

    • Zafer Caglayan, the economy minister who has declared himself “allergic to interest rates,” supported Erdogan’s interesting economic theory that high interest rates cause inflation.
    • Interior Minister Muammer Guler is the man who said recently that mixed lodgings at universities should be banned because “terrorist organizations have started to significantly abuse the relationships between the boys and girls, those among the university youth. They use it as a recruitment base.” What can one say?
    • Minister for Urban Planning and Development Erdogan Bayraktar once said that because Turks are Muslims and live in a difficult region, “we aren’t capable of inventing anything or making discoveries. We’re an agricultural country. What should we do?”
    • Minister for EU Affairs Egemen Bagis said, memorably, during the Gezi Park protests earlier this year that “Everyone who enters Taksim Square will be treated like a terrorist.” He is a reliable echo chamber for Erdogan’s latest thoughts, but he’s an unconvincing minister.

    The sons of the first three ministers on this list have been arrested. While he’s at it, Erdogan should shed his new adviser, Yigit Bulut, who has accused unnamed centers abroad of trying to murder Erdogan via “telekinesis.” I hardly dare imagine what advice he gives.

    These men were once at best marginal in Turkey’s government, but they have become central, displacing the steadier hands Erdogan used to rely on, such as Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan on the economy. Erdogan should make a clean break, removing the four targeted ministers so that they can give their full attention to the corruption investigations. He also needs to give his own full support to those probes, demonstrating that he isn’t protecting himself and remains committed to the original, “pure” promise of the AK Party.

    I doubt this is what Erdogan will do. He would see it as a defeat, because it would mean sharing power and influence with people who haven’t always said “yes.” He wouldn’t become the all-powerful president he plans to be next year, after the country’s first direct presidential elections. I suspect he will fight back as he knows how, and he may very well win. The Erdogan of a decade ago, who deftly avoided the political traps that the military and its supporters planted for him, would have made a better choice. He wouldn’t have gotten himself into this mess. He would have been listening.

    (Marc Champion is a Bloomberg View editorial board member. Follow him on Twitter.)

  • KILLERS! My Last Letter to Obama

    KILLERS! My Last Letter to Obama

    20 December 2013

    The Honorable Barack H. Obama President of the United States
    The White House
    1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
    Washington, DC 20500
    USA

    Dear Mr. President:

    KILLERS!

    You have destroyed the secular republic of Turkey. But it’s not only about you, Mr. President. It’s about Bush and Clinton and the other Bush and Reagan and Carter and Ford and Nixon and all the others like them who have been trying through the years to subvert Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s secular, democratic republic of Turkey. It’s also about your CIA and all its directors and its agents like Abramowitz and Edelman and Fethullah Gülen and Graham Fuller. And it’s about your CIA-inspired collaborating ambassadors to Turkey like Ricciardone and Jeffrey and Wilson and Edelman and Pearson and Parris and Grossman and Barkley and Abramowitz and Strausz-Hupe and Spain and Spiers and Macomber and Handley and Komer and all their double-talking predecessors beginning on 10 November 1938 when Atatürk died. But it’s mostly about your once best friend and key hit-man, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. And, of course, your under-educated, ever-treacherous under-cover CIA agent, religious huckster, and Pennsylvania resident, Fethullah Gülen. How good of you, Mr. President, to use these two religious hypocrites to employ God as a vehicle to divide and destroy a nation like Turkey. You, Mr. President, you and all the above American agent-provocateurs are guilty of subornation of treason. As a lawyer, I am sure you know what this means.

    You have aided and abetted these two traitors, Erdoğan and Gülen, to engage in high crimes and misdemeanors in destroying the sovereignty of the Turkish nation. You have allowed your puppets, Erdoğan and Gülen, to kill and maim the citizens of Turkey. You have allowed your Erdoğan and his political thugs to plunder the nation of its natural resources, its wealth, its security and its honor. You have allowed your Gülen and his Gülen-controlled police force to brutally attack the Turkish people. And now, fed up with the treacherous, embarrassing Erdoğan, you are trying to dump him. But he is your “child,” Mr. President, another made-in-America political thug. And now you are using your other “child” (via the CIA) to have Gülen’s police to topple him. How stupidly obvious can you be? Erdogan’s corruption (and his political party’s) has been known for years. As has Gülen’s treachery. Your Erdoğan and Gülen’s police killed, gassed, beat, stabbed and otherwise maimed thousands of “Gezi Park” protestors. You and your reprehensible ambassador sold the Erdoğan government tons of tear gas and tasers and long range acoustic devices to violently suppress a democratic expression of the Turkish people’s disgust with the Erdoğan government. It resulted in six murders by the police. Are you beginning to understand, Mr. President?

    How nice that now you too are disgusted with Erdoğan. And how clever of you to turn CIA “asset” Gülen against CIA “asset” Erdoğan. But what now, Mr. President? Do you think the “moderately” Islamic “gülenistas” in the AKP are any better than “moderately” Islamic Erdoğan? Do you think the Abdullah Gül puppet is any better than the Erdoğan model? Do you think the opposition party, now cravenly meeting with your ambassador, Ricciardone, is any better than Erdoğan? None of them are. Why? Because it is All-American garbage, that’s why. And it is because of you and your continuation of the sordid legacy of American gangsterism in the Republic of Turkey. Mr. President, Erdoğan and Gülen and you are enemies of the Turkish state. And the Turkish people know it. But, Mr. President, do you? Do you even care?

    Sincerely yours,

    James C. Ryan
    Istanbul
    20 December 2013

     

    untitlewd
    Erdoğan and Gülen

     

     

  • Turkey’s Erdogan Is Quietly Wooing America’s Enemies

    Turkey’s Erdogan Is Quietly Wooing America’s Enemies

    Turkey’s Erdogan Is Quietly Wooing America’s Enemies

    By Benny Avni / November 08 2013 10:12 AM
    11-8-2013dl0340turkey
    Turkey’s prime minister has snubbed advances from America’s arms manufacturers, hosted top officials from Tehran and deepened a rift with Israel.   Umit Bektas/Reuters

    Turkey is looking around for new allies – and that is not good news for America.

    Although Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long been essential to President Barack Obama’s strategy in the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, and although he boasts the second largest army in the American-led NATO, he is currently exploring new alliances with some of America’s main commercial and political competitors and long-established enemies.

    By reaching out to countries like China and Iran, Erdogan is expressing his disappointment at America’s perceived withdrawal from the region, according to some foreign policy analysts. He has snubbed advances from America’s arms manufacturers, hosted top officials from Tehran and deepened a rift with Israel, its former ally. Others believe he is returning to his former policy, long considered a failure, of seeking ties with everybody in the neighborhood and beyond.

    But recent dramatic shifts in policy may also be part of Erdogan’s search for a new political role, steering Turkey away from its century-long secularism and turning it towards a new model in which Islam trumps democracy and Turkey moves from being not simply one more member of the NATO alliance but a major world power in its own right with ties around the globe.

    Erdogan was quick to develop a special relationship with Obama, who saw the policies of his Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) as a model for how Islam and democracy can exist side by side. But Erdogan was unhappy about Obama’s reluctance to intervene in Syria’s civil war and some of his latest diplomatic moves have raised eyebrows in Washington.

    “Relations remain good,” said Steven Cook of the Council of Foreign Relations, a longtime Turkey watcher. But, he adds, a nagging question now arises in American foreign policy circles: “What is it that Turkey provides?”

    As Ankara seeks new alliances, Erdogan’s opponents, both inside and outside the country, point to his “neo-Ottomanism.” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, a former academic who is the main architect of the AKP’s foreign policy shifts, often invokes the memory of the old Ottoman Empire, complete with dropping the names of the empire’s major outposts. “Without going to war, we will again tie Sarajevo to Damascus, Benghazi to Erzurum and to Batumi,” he promised recently.

    There are many signs of Turkey’s departure from the century-old traditions established by the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – who turned the country into an outward facing, secular, Western-friendly state in the aftermath of the Ottoman defeat in World War I. Erdogan is so hostile to Ataturk, he can’t even bring himself to utter the words Istanbul Ataturk Airport. This week, in another sign he is shifting Turkey in a new direction, he clashed with students in Istanbul who were afraid he’d outlaw mixed-sex apartment-sharing, which is seen by some in his entourage as sinful and un-Islamic.

    Meanwhile, Davutoglu’s early idea of where the future of Turkey lies with the promise of “zero problems with all our neighbors” has not materialized. Such a foreign policy looked good on paper and it was welcomed by the Western press, noted Razi Canikligil, a veteran New York-based reporter for Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper. But now, “All I see in the American and European media is criticism of Erdogan’s foreign policy,” said Canikligil.

    “Zero problems” have turned into lots of problems:

    ● Erdogan remains intent on unseating Syria’s President Bashar Assad, who was one of his early allies.

    ● He continues to strongly support Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, ousted from power in last summer’s military coup, which has pitted Turkey against the current Egyptian ruler, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

    ● Turkey is viewed with suspicion by the Palestinian Authority because of its strong backing of their mortal rival Hamas.

    ● Relations with Saudi Arabia have also cooled off, partly because Turkey, which has a Sunni majority, has started repairing ties with Shiite powers, including not only Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki but, most troubling to America, the mullahs who rule Iran.

    “Some circles may want to represent us as two rival neighbors. Some may desire it,” Davutoglu declared during a much-ballyhooed joint press conference in Istanbul with Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, on November 1. “On the contrary, Turkey and Iran are not rivals but friends,” he said.

    In the West, the thawing of relations between Iran and Turkey after a long period of chilliness is seen as part of a troubling trend. It came after Ankara stunned Washington and other NATO allies by signing a $3.4 billion deal with a Chinese company to build a missile defense system.

    Preferring China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp. to U.S. manufacturers Raytheon and Lockheed Martin certainly caught Washington’s attention, not least because the Chinese-made system is incompatible with the NATO air defenses imminently due to be deployed in Turkey. To add insult to injury, the Chinese manufacturer is already on the American sanctions list for violating long-standing embargoes against Iran and North Korea. “We are seriously concerned about what this means for Allied missile air defense,” the American ambassador in Turkey, Francis Ricciardone, said last month.

    Turkey has long aimed to establish itself as an independent arms supplier, at times running afoul of the strict restrictions that accompany American arms sales to foreign countries. As far back as the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson told Turkey it could not use NATO arms in its war in Cyprus, noted Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Turkey has therefore tried to get arms from non-Western manufacturers for a long time, he said.

    But, he added, the timing of Ankara’s decision to do such a prominent deal with the Chinese company has to do with its irritation over America’s inaction in Syria.

    “This is a result of Turkey feeling lonely,” said Cagaptay. “Ankara is exposed to the fallout of the Syrian War and it has not been able to get American firepower to oust Assad.” And so, he concludes, as Erdogan realizes he may have to learn to live with Assad remaining in power, he’s turning to Iran to help sort things out in Syria.

    This decision may have further soured the long-deteriorating relationship between Erdogan and Israel. Last month Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reported that Ankara’s intelligence officials have disclosed to their Tehran counterparts the identities of Israeli-recruited agents working in Iran, after the spies met with their Israeli controllers on Turkish soil.

    “This is a despicable act,” said Danny Yatom, the former chief of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency. Stressing that he only knows about the incident from press accounts, Yatom added that if were true, Turkey could only have learned about the agents from the Israelis. Allied intelligence agencies customarily inform each other about contacts conducted on each other’s soil, he told me, adding that in his many years in the intelligence business he can’t remember such a blatant betrayal “by a so-called friendly apparatus.”

    Turkey denied Ignatius’s report, but Davutoglu stressed in his Istanbul press conference with Zarif that “the Turkish government has never cooperated with Israel against any Muslim country – and it never will.” Yatom, who predicts the reported incident will come to haunt Turkey, as in the future allies will fear sharing intelligence with it, said Israel has only a few ways of getting back at Turkey. “We won’t do the same to them,” he told me, but added that Israel must “call on countries to reassess intelligence sharing and urge the Americans and NATO to cool relations with Turkey as result of this.”

    In light of his ever-shifting policies, much of the early promise Westerners saw in Erdogan has fizzled. In Turkey, too, his violent clampdown on the Gezi Park demonstrators last summer – complaining about restrictions on the freedom of speech and civil rights abuses – disappointed many former supporters. He may have jeopardized his plan to strengthen the powers of the country’s presidency and run for that office when his term-limited premiership ends in 2015.

    Erdogan may be down, at least for now, but “I’d never count him out,” said Cook. “He’s too good a politician.”

    https://www.newsweek.com/turkeys-erdogan-quietly-wooing-americas-enemies-2846

  • Is Erdogan punishing a Turkish business empire for helping protesters?

    Is Erdogan punishing a Turkish business empire for helping protesters?

    Turkey’s Koc Holding has been investigated repeatedly since helping antigovernment protesters this summer. Will that chill investment?

    By Alexander Christie-Miller, Correspondent / October 8, 2013

    • 1008-turkey-Erdogan-Koc-holding_full_380

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a meeting in Ankara, Turkey, Oct. 1, 2013.

    AP

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    A string of legal and administrative actions against Turkey’s largest business empire has led some to suspect a government vendetta, risking damage to the country’s investment-friendly reputation.

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    Koc Holding, whose companies account for some 9 percent of Turkey’s GDP, incurred the wrath of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan when a Koc-owned hotel sheltered protesters fleeing from police during mass protests in Istanbul in June.

    Since then tax authorities have launched probes into two Koc companies, the government has cancelled a contract with one of its firms to build warships, and a university founded by Koc has been threatened with eviction over disputed back rent. Last month a lawyer filed a criminal complaint calling for an investigation into the company’s possible role in the overthrow of Turkey’s first Islamist government in 1997.

    While both Koc and Ankara deny any of these measures are politically motivated, analysts say the claims are tarnishing Turkey’s business image at a time when the country badly needs more direct foreign investment.

    Since the start of May, the value of the Turkish lira has plunged 11 percent against the dollar, and the Istanbul stock market has lost 14 percent of its value as investors moved their money out of emerging markets like Turkey. 

    The currency slump has prompted fears over Turkey’s reliance on short term foreign debt. With economists warning that the country needs to attract longer term foreign investment in order to secure itself against the threat posed by further currency devaluations, many are worried about the government’s possible targeting of Koc.

    “It seems like revenge, and I believe it’s damaging the image of Turkey’s business environment,” says Ugur Gurses, an economic columnist for the daily Radikal newspaper.

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    Others remain unconvinced that there is any vendetta. “It is a huge company with many different operations, so hard to say whether it is being disproportionately impacted by regulatory oversight,” says Timothy Ash, head of emerging market research at Standard Bank in London.

    Whether or not Ankara’s hand is truly behind the measures against Koc, the perception is that it might be is adding to unease in the business community. 

    “What we need is direct investment, not loans, and if the government is taking revenge against Koc, this sends out a bad message for our future,” says Gurses.

    He believes the alleged targeting of Koc may fade away if more business-oriented minds in Ankara are able to appease Erdogan’s anger against the group.

    Chain of events

    The controversy surrounding Koc began when the Divan Hotel, close to Istanbul’s Gezi Park, opened its doors to anti-government demonstrators fleeing tear gas and riot police on the night of June 15.

    As scores of demonstrators sheltered in the lobby, including a German member of the European Parliament, riot police fired tear gas and a water cannon through its revolving doors. Although the hotel’s management made the decision to shelter the protesters, Koc Holding, which owns the hotel, has supported the decision.

    The following day Mr. Erdogan, who has consistently portrayed the demonstrators as violent and criminal, issued the first of a series of veiled threats against Koc.

    “We know which hotel owners helped terrorists. Those crimes will not remain unpunished,” he said at a rally of his supporters in Istanbul.

    The following month Turkey’s finance ministry launched an investigation into TUPRAS, the largest Koc-owned company and Turkey’s sole oil refiner, and another Koc company, Aygaz, which sells liquefied petroleum gas.

    Soon after news broke of the investigations, Turkey’s Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek denied they were politically motivated.

    “The Tax Inspection Board conducts 50,000 tax investigations every year. There is definitely no connection between the Gezi incidents and tax investigations,” he wrote in a message on Twitter.

    Late last month a $2.5 billion contract to build six corvettes for the Turkish Navy given to another Koc subsidiary, RMK Marine, was unexpectedly canceled after it was awarded in January. The cancellation came after a rival firm that had been excluded from the bidding process filed a complaint with a business standards council within the prime minister’s office claiming the tender had been unfair.

    Meanwhile, Turkish media also reported last month that the Ministry of Forestry is preparing to evict a university run by Koc from land the ministry claims to own for failing to pay disputed back rent of about 20 to 30 million Turkish lira ($10 million to $15 million).

    The measures evoked comparisons with another incident of alleged government bullying of big business: a $3.8 billion tax fine levied against the Dogan group in 2009. The fine came after newspapers belonging to Dogan, which owns the country’s largest media empire, took an aggressively negative line against Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted government, and the prime minister publicly rebuked owner Aydin Dogan.

    A clash of power players

    In an interview on Turkish television last month Koc Holding chairman Mustafa Koc, at once dismissed claims that his company was being targeted, but simultaneously defended his hotel’s ‘humanitarian approach’ during the protests.

    “Any change [in our investments] or cancellation [in our contracts], to date, is the subject of mere speculation. We want nothing to do with this,” he said.

    Koc Holding, founded by Mustafa’s grandfather Vehbi Koc in 1926, is among a clutch of family-owned business empires that make up Turkey’s secular aristocracy.

    While they retain much of their former economic clout, the political influence they once enjoyed has reduced dramatically over the past decade in which Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party has governed Turkey.

    The newly affluent pious class that has flourished under Erdogan views this old elite with bitter resentment, referring to them by the derogatory term “White Turks” and accusing them of complicity in past state repression of devout Muslims.

    On Sept. 16, a lawyer in the conservative city of Erzurum filed a complaint against Koc Holding and Dogan, calling for both to be added as suspects to a criminal case into the fall of Turkey’s first Islamist government in 1997. The trial involved more than 100 military officers accused of using covert pressure to engineer the overthrow of Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, an episode now referred to by most Turks as the “postmodern coup.”

    The complaint was filed the day after Erdogan made a speech in which he seemed to call for the prosecution of business and media groups he said were involved.

    “Wasn’t there a contribution of conglomerates to [the 1997 coup]? Wasn’t there a contribution of print and visual media? I’m astonished that they aren’t on trial. I wonder why they aren’t called to account,” he said in a speech to industrialists in Istanbul.

    Mustafa Polat, the lawyer who filed the complaint, told The Christian Science Monitor he had heard Erdogan’s speech before acting, but was not influenced by it.

    “Koc and Dogan cooperated with the coup party and they took financial advantage of the situation,” Mr. Polat says, adding that the companies are now being investigated by Turkey’s financial crimes bureau.

    Polat is a complainant in the case because he graduated from a religious high school, and following the coup, legal changes barred graduates from these schools from training as lawyers, forcing him to study in northern Cyprus.

    “If it wasn’t for the coup, I wouldn’t have had to go there,” he says.

    He added that at this stage it is not clear what penalty – if any – the companies could face. But he believes Koc deserves punishment regardless of the economic cost, using a Turkish saying: “The finger feels no pain that is cut off according to Sharia law.”