Russ Baker is an award-winning investigative reporter. He has written for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Village Voice and Esquire and dozens of other major domestic and foreign publications.
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Russ Baker is an award-winning investigative reporter. He has written for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Village Voice and Esquire and dozens of other major domestic and foreign publications.
ISTANBUL
A Muslim youth group and a neighborhood authority led two separate anti-Santa campaigns on the eve of Christmas in Turkey.
The Istanbul University branch of a group called Anatolia Youth Association (AGD) released an illustration of a Muslim youth punching Santa Claus in the face and announced that it would make a press statement against Christmas on Dec. 26 in Istanbul.
The group announced the event with a statement titled “Muslim, return to yourself!” adding that “Christmas is a Christianity practice.” The group also criticized the celebration of New Year’s Day, saying that the two dates were “mixed” and “united.” It claimed that celebrating Christmas and New Year’s Day was “wrong” and constituted “a blow dealt to Muslimism.”
Earlier this week, the Şirinevler muhtar, the head of the neighborhood, hung a banner making it clear that Santa Claus was not welcome on their streets.
“As in recent years, Santa Claus will not be coming to Şirinevler since he is nothing to do with our traditions and our culture,” muhtar Galip Karayiğit said in the statement. “[Turk legend character] Dede Korkut will come to our houses again, and will teach our children that they did not come into this world for pleasure, that they came to distribute justice.”
By: Fehim Taştekin
It is difficult to predict how the bribery/corruption investigation into several Turkish ministers will end. Although there are those who frame the event as a power struggle between the Fethullah Gulen movement and the government, conspiracy theories expand its dimensions to include the United States and Iran. With the detentions of Suleyman Aslan, CEO of Halkbank, and Riza Sarraf, an Iranian businessman who deals with gold and was originally named Reza Zarrab, the focus is now on the Iran-Halkbank-gold triangle.
The government is looking for US and Israeli hands in the operation because of the use of Halkbank to circumvent the sanctions imposed on Iran. Prosecution sources stress that the investigation is aimed not at Halkbank but its CEO, after a search of his house yielded $4.5 million hidden in shoeboxes. But the arrival in Turkey of David Cohen, the US Treasury’s undersecretary of terrorism and financial intelligence, shows the importance of the Sarraf-Halkbank file in the affair.
Since Iran was banned from using the international money-transfer system SWIFT as of March 2012 as stipulated by US-EU embargoes, there have been many media reports that Tehran has been using Turkey’s Halkbank to evade the restriction.
According to reports the police have delivered to prosecutors, this is how the plan worked: A system was hatched to bypass SWIFT queries by setting up front companies in China. Then, money was transferred from Iran with falsified documents to bank accounts opened in the names of those companies in the guise of reimbursements for imports from China. The money was immediately transferred to the accounts of real or front companies in Turkey as payment for exports, and used to purchase gold. The gold was then sent via couriers to Iran, or to Dubai to be forwarded to Iran.
According to economist Ugur Gurses, this complex system arose to address Turkey’s inability to pay Iran through routine channels for the oil and natural gas it was buying.
This is why Turkey opened an account for Iran at Halkbank. Iran converted the deposits in these accounts to gold. Gold procured from international markets was first brought to Turkey and then sent to Iran. As the intermediary company was registered in Turkey, Turkey’s gold imports and exports rose steadily as Turkey paid its debts to Iran. In three years, $8 billion worth of gold was sent to Iran.
To counter this scheme, the United States banned gold exports to Iran in July 2013. This resulted in the accumulation of nearly $13 billion in imported gold in Turkey.
Gurses’ narrative found its way to the investigation files, along with reports from wiretapping and other surveillance. The government, trying to defend itself, opted to label the operation as an anti-Halkbank campaign.
Star, which acts as a mouthpiece for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, had this comment: “Attacks against Halkbank are generally originating from the United States. Last year’s $6.5 billion worth of gold exports to Iran had also upset the US government, which had asked the bank to cease gold trade with Iran. Also, India’s decision to use Halkbank to transfer its reimbursements bothered Western countries, as India now owes Iran $5.3 billion in oil debt. India is planning to pay Iran $1 billion per month — that is $12 billion annually — also through Halkbank.”
Percentage to the minister
Ostensibly, it was the bribery case that prompted the investigation into the scheme with Iran. According to police findings, Zarrab, who assumed the name of Riza Sarraf after becoming a Turkish citizen, has close links to Iran. After developing a web of relationships with ministers and their sons, he designed a system to funnel billions of dollars. Sarraf’s father had connections with former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. Sarraf was paying thousands in “commission” — bribes — to Minister of Economy Zafer Caglayan. Caglayan was paid 103 million lira ($49 million), and Aslan 16 million lira ($7.7 million), over two years. Caglayan, who wanted to inflate national export figures, wanted Sarraf to make the transfers in gold. At their Oct. 3 meeting, Caglayan told Sarraf, “You have to export at least $4 billion of gold before the end of the year.” The police investigation file says, “It was understood that Sarraf was trying to boost export figures in line with the demands of [Prime Minister Recep] Tayyip Erdogan, Zafer Caglayan and Suleyman Aslan,” noting that exports were also made to Dubai.
Not easy without the prime minister’s approval
Oktay Ozdabakoglu, Radikal’s finance and capital market expert, made this assessment to Al-Monitor: “At the core of the operation are the transactions made by Sarraf. It is claimed that Sarraf and his team, in a system they developed to circumvent black money and SWIFT queries asked in banking transactions as required by the embargo applied to Iran, were transferring the money of certain Iranians from Iranian banks and sending it back to Iran as gold. In this complicated process, they were actually killing three birds with one stone. While Sarraf and his cohorts were collecting their cuts, Turkey’s exports were increasing. Iran, supposedly under embargo, was continuing its trading, and meeting its hot money needs. A public bank was playing the key role in finalizing these transactions. It appears impossible that this operation could have been conducted without the permission or information of the government or quarters close to the government.”
Mind-boggling rise
The rise of Sarraf, who worked for Al Nafees Exchange and Al Salam Center Exchange in Dubai before entering the Turkish market in 2008, boggles the mind. It is impossible to achieve such a stunning growth without political and bureaucratic backing. Sarraf, who set up Royal Maritime in 2008, went into the gold business in 2011, and in 2012 entered the market with Safir Gold Company. In 2012, that company broke all records by singlehandedly realizing 46% of all Turkish gold exports. Although his men were caught several times at airports with gold and nobody touched them, he came under the scrutiny of the Financial Crimes Investigation Board. The Sarraf file found its way to the judiciary when the government’s former partner, the Gulen movement, pressed the button in anger over the government’s decision to close down private tutoring halls it operated for students.
The file built by police and prosecutors believed to be affiliated with the Gulen movement, which constitutes the base of this kamikaze attack, will not only shake the government. It has the potential to cause major damage to Turkey’s relations with the United States, already shaken by divergences over Israel and Syria.
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Fehim Taştekin: is a columnist and chief editor of foreign news at the Turkish newspaper Radikal, based in Istanbul. He is the host of a fortnightly program called “Dogu Divanı” on IMC TV. He is an analyst specializing in Turkish foreign policy and Caucasus, Middle East and EU affairs. He was founding editor of Agency Caucasus.
Source: al-monitor
“There is no doubt some Azerbaijani officials’ simply mock ordinary people. They even don’t try to hide that. On the contrary, the actions and statements of these officials illustrate how far they stand from the real life of ordinary people. They simply enjoy the benefits of living in their fantasy world, moreover, they live in that luxury at the expense of the people they ignore,” Azerbaijani news portal Vesti.az reports.
As it is stated in the article the end of 2013 in Azerbaijan has been marked with rise in fuel prices and increased salaries of deputies and judges. Some Azerbaijani deputies even made attempts to justify increase in fuel prices by ridiculous statements: “this action will result in traffic jam reduction.” Of course, nothing of a kind happen.
“Ordinary people with honor endured increase of fuel prices and “to spite” the Tariff Council officials continued to drive cars, preferring to cut their family budgets but not to use public transport. The grievance of people didn’t last long. Apparently, the fact frustrated the officials and they devised a new trial,” the article says.
The author posits that according to local officials, the Azerbaijani people eat a lot and are overwhelmingly fat. “In a word, their brains are soaked in fat which negatively affects the level of education of population. Thus, the officials came up with an ingenious idea to end the problem once and for all,” the article reads.
“It appears that the Azerbaijanis make an excessive use of meat. It turned out that we have such a great amount of meat that it’s time to get rid of it. And never mind that there are lot of families who for many months encounter meat only by TV, our statistics show the opposite. And now, apparently, based on our statistics, the best statistics of the world, there are talks in Azerbaijan about the need to reduce the number of cattle,” writes the author, noting that he came to that conclusion based on the words of Chingiz Farajev, the department head of Ministry of Agriculture in Azerbaijan.
Farajev declared that livestock sector in Azerbaijan has been developing extensively. Currently the amount of cattle in the country is 2,712 million. However, there is no need to keep such a large number of animals.
The official noted that there is little land and feed in Azerbaijan; consequently it is necessary to cut the number of animals and in parallel raise their productivity. “We should receive 2500kg of milk yearly from cows and buffaloes. We must reduce the number of cattle to 1.8 million,” said Farajev.
In connection with this statement the author mockingly observes; “I knew that such an excessive economic growth wouldn’t lead to anything good. We appear so ahead of the rest of the planet that now we don’t know what to do with additional meat. In principle, if unlike the world we have a meat surplus then to strengthen the image of Azerbaijan in international arena, we could send humanitarian aid to the starving in Somalia, Uganda and Nigeria.”
The author wonders whether the officials of Azerbaijani Ministry of Agriculture are aware of the prices of beef. “If not, I’ll inform them. The price of one kilogram of normal beef is 10 manat ($12, 7 – edt.). Now, imagine what would happen if the number of cattle is reduced thrice. The price of beef would also increase thrice, and at best would reach 13 manat ($16,5 – edt.). But taking into account that our officials are able to count only including their profit, it can be stated that the price would reach 15 manat ($19 –edt.),” the article reads.
Referring to the Azerbaijani statistics, which local officials are fond of, the author notes that in Azerbaijan every person annually consumes an average of 33.2 kg of meat, 250 kg of milk and 133 units of eggs. However, according to WHO’s recommendations meat consumption per capita per year should be 70.1 kg, milk- 359.9 kg and eggs – 243 units.
“In other words, we have a lack of 36.9 kg of meat, 110 eggs and 109.9 kg of milk. But in case the above mentioned wise decision would be implemented, “fattened” Azerbaijanis, who were consuming meat excessively, would correct their figures.
Instead, we would drink a lot of milk. For the victory of vegetarianism in Azerbaijan! And why on earth we need meat, it is said that meat consumption contributes to early ageing, but we need to stay young to be able to catch up and overtake decaying Norway and Switzerland,” “Vesti.az” reports.
Note, that according to the data of Azerbaijani Ministry of Agriculture meat consumption in Azerbaijan equals to 288 thousand tones, or 30,8kg per citizen of the republic (assuming the officially stated number of population). It is noteworthy that according to National Statistical Service of Armenia, meat consumption in the country in 2012 amounted to 136,5million tones (fish not included). In per capita terms, this amounts to 45,5kg of meat per year, which is 47% more than in Azerbaijan.
December 24, 2013 – 16:25 AMT
A Palestinian college student is one of the last keepers of a fading tradition — ringing the bells of Bethlehem. Twice per week, Khadir Jaraiseh climbs to the roof of the Church of the Nativity, built over the grotto where tradition says Jesus was born. He pulls the ropes of four bells in a rooftop tower for a total of 33 times to symbolize the number of years Jesus was believed to have lived, the Associated Press reports.
Jaraiseh rings the bells for prayer services of the Armenian Apostolic Church, one of three denominations that administer the basilica, one of Christianity’s holiest shrines. The Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox denominations at the Nativity church — each of which has its own set of bells — have switched to automatic bell-ringing.
But there’s something special about the traditional approach, said Jaraiseh, who uses both hands and a floor pedal to pull the ropes.
“I feel like I’m making music and talking to God,” said the 22-year-old, who has worked at the church for four years and is studying to become a tourist guide. “There is nothing better than working in the place of Jesus’ birth.”
Jaraiseh rings the bells two days per week and an older colleague covers the remaining five days. During the Christmas season, his task is particularly enjoyable, he said.
Jaraiseh said Christmas remains the highlight of his year despite the political situation. “We wait for it, it’s a happy day and we feel happy, regardless,” he said.
The Armenians mark Christmas on Jan 6. The day before, Jaraiseh will ring the bells for longer, while the Christmas Eve procession of the Armenian Patriarch makes its way into church. Though he is the bell-ringer for the Armenians, Jaraiseh is Roman Catholic and celebrates Christmas this week.
By Taleen Babayan
A symposium on survivor meaning, which featured reputable leaders in the field of study, including Peter Balakian, Jay Lifton and Marianne Hirsch, was held at Columbia University on Wednesday evening, December 4, in an event hosted by the Armenian Center at Columbia University.
Titled “Survivor Meaning: After the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, and Hiroshima,” the panel delved into the aftermath of the survivors of these human catastrophes as they searched for an understanding of their tragic experiences.
Acclaimed poet and prize winning author, Balakian was introduced by Marianne Hirsch, the William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, who served as the moderator of the panel and who has written several important books on trauma and memory and the Holocaust.
Balakian presented a personal and inherited familial narrative, which was the case of his grandmother Nafina, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide as a “way of engaging conversation in survivor experience.”
A resident of Diyarbekir during the time of the Armenian Genocide, her family’s homes and properties were looted and confiscated and she was witness to the massacre of her family and community. Nafina survived a forced march, in which everyone in her family was killed.
Having arrived in Aleppo in the Fall of 1915, she began to compile affidavits for what would be a human rights suit of the Turkish government for all the losses endured by her family. Balakian read his grandmother’s insurance claim from his New York Times bestselling memoir, Black Dog of Fate. He said the claim, which she filed when she arrived in the United States, “contributed to the understanding of a survivor in the immediate aftermath of an enormous encounter with mass killing, rape, starvation, famine and death.”
“She was witness to the truth,” said Balakian, who is the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities at Colgate University and the Ordjanian Visiting Professor in Armenian Studies at Columbia University.
Scholar, psychiatrist and historian, Robert Jay Lifton, who has written over 20 books on trauma, survival and violence, defined a survivor as someone who has in some way encountered death, witnessed it, and at the same time remained alive.
“There’s a triumph in surviving because one stays alive,” said Lifton, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at CUNY/Graduate Center and John Jay College for Criminal Justice. “It’s necessary to give meaning to that catastrophe if one is to find meaning in the rest of one’s life.”
He said survivors of the bombing in Hiroshima, Japan after World War II experienced a lifetime of “death haunted imagery” from the encounter itself to the effects of the tragedy that carried over to the next generation.
“From survivor meaning comes a survivor mission which one carries out in order to assert that meaning,” said Lifton, who concluded his presentation by returning to Nefina’s story. “There was a heroic struggle by this woman who sought to oppose the forces of destruction in her life. I don’t think there could be a better moral principle in which to base our world.”
Following Balakian’s and Lifton’s presentations, Hirsch posed follow up questions, including why Nafina “chose a legal claim, not to seek repair but to voice the wrong and to commemorate the dead.”
”It’s a stay against being expunged or annihilated,” said Balakian, who remarked that nothing came of the claim and that the document remained in a dresser drawer for 60 years until he himself found it. “In cases of mass killings and genocides, the survivors end up taking the ethical role and family is essential. This claim has a graveyard dimension to it.”
Lifton observed that it was a series of bearing witness since Nafina experienced the catastrophe and retold the story through the means of her legal claim. “What is unsuccessful in a legal sense, starts legal ramifications of the witness, and there’s something moving about that. “
Lifton noted that calamities like the Holocaust, Hiroshima and the Armenian Genocide annihilate meaning along with human beings and structures.
“As human beings, we are meaning hungry creatures,” said Lifton. “That’s why the struggle for meaning is so difficult and poignant and painful – but it always goes on because that’s how we function mentally. We must recreate all that we perceive.”
The presentation was followed by lively audience questions and the aftermath conversations went on well into the evening in what was the conclusion to a
memorable semester of events hosted by the Armenian Center at Columbia.
Caption:
Professor Peter Balakian recounting the story of his grandmother Nafina’s escape during the Armenian Genocide
Source: http://massispost.com
PARIS (Armenpress)—Member of the French parliament, PACE Vice-President, and Chairman of the Armenia-France friendship group René Rouquet expressed his concerns over the recent verdict of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Doğu Perinçek’s case, ruling that the denial of the Armenian genocide is not a crime. According to the report by Armenpress, René Rouquet stated that this verdict is a blow to all those people, who are working for the restoration of the just memory of the Armenian people.
The PACE Vice-President raised a number of questions. First, he emphasized that Switzerland can appeal the verdict within three months in the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. Among other things, Rouquet noted, “In this respect the verdict is not final and the Grand Chamber can fulfill its function of protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with article 44 of the European Convention on Human Rights.”
In addition, Rouquet emphasized, “After this verdict I am more than convinced that denialism has no place at least on the European level. We must struggle until the final triumph on the international level. This is our sacred duty before the memory of the victims of the first Genocide of the 20th century.”
Previously it was reported that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) announced an ambiguous verdict on Doğu Perinçek’s case, particularly taking into consideration the fact that two of the seven judges cast their vote against the verdict. The Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Hrayr Tovmasyan underscored that, while announcing the verdict, the ECHR laid a heavy emphasis on the fact that Doğu Perinçek is a historian and scientist.
The ANC’s French Office and the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (ANC of Europe) issued a statement, which says: “The court’s verdict is extremely dangerous and provides direct support to the stream of denialism in Europe orchestrated by Ankara and Baku and paves an additional way for them. This infamous decision of the European Court transgresses the right to dignity of the Armenian Genocide victims and their descendants.”
By: Orhan Kemal Cengiz
Thousands of master’s theses and Ph.D. dissertations in the social sciences are written each year in Turkey. The Higher Education Board (YOK) keeps an electronic database of their topics and titles. A search in the database of dissertations on the Armenian genocide returns a striking result: Only four theses have been written on the issue and, as their titles immediately suggest, they all reflect Turkey’s official position on the massacres.
The four titles are as follows: “Armenian genocide claims in view of international law,” “The importance of pressure groups, lobby activities within the context of the so-called Armenian genocide,” “Turkish-Armenian relations in history and the impact of Armenian genocide claims on Turkey’s European Union membership process” and “Armenian genocide claims in international law.”
That is all Turkish universities have been able to produce in terms of theses on the topic of the Armenian genocide. How is this possible? Are there no academics willing to write dissertations contesting Turkey’s official history line and argue, for instance, that the 1915 events were a genocide? Or is there a state mechanism in place that doesn’t leave it up to chance?
A Dec. 12 report in the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos reveals that academics working on dissertations about the Armenian genocide are under the close scrutiny of the Turkish Historical Society (TTK). According to Agos, the TTK has asked YOK for the details of academics studying the Armenian issue and the YOK chairman, in turn, has asked universities to provide that information. A document Agos published indicates that the YOK chairman had asked universities to supply “the names of master’s and doctoral students working on the Armenian problem, the titles of their researches and contact information, in view of making them available to the Turkish Historical Society in the work it conducts.”
As I mentioned in my previous article for Al-Monitor, various government institutions in Turkey are busy making counter preparations for 2015, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. The TTK is one of them. The society is likely to have requested the said information from YOK with a view of using it in those preparations.
When Agos asked the TTK why they needed that information, a TTK official stated that scholarships might be offered to academics working in this realm. Agos then asked whether the TTK would give a scholarship to someone whose thesis qualifies the 1915 events as genocide. The official responded that, since the TTK does not officially recognize the Armenian genocide, providing a scholarship to such a study might not be possible.
Agos argues that the TTK’s real motive is to control the academia and keep records of those working on the Armenian problem.
A subsequent report in the Taraf daily backed up Agos’ argument that those studying the Armenian genocide are being secretly profiled. Two former presidents of Istanbul’s Bogazici University, interviewed by Taraf, shed light on how the censorship mechanism works in the academia.
Ustun Erguder confirmed he had received letters from YOK with requests for information. “During my term as university president, YOK would send such letters, but we would dismiss them as [those requests] had nothing to do with our understanding of academic freedom. That’s something that has been done for years. We had even received letters suggesting we made sure that theses ‘supporting Turkish unity’ were written. … It is out of the question for me to approve of YOK requests seeking out the names and details of those writing theses on the Armenian problem,” Erguder said.
Another former Bogazici University president, Ayse Soysal, made the following comments: “I used to receive similar letters from YOK, while I was university president. It was routine. Two types of letters would come from YOK. One would be in the form of [suggestions] that we support studies backing the state’s official view on subject X or subject Y.”
The insight the two former presidents provide on how the system functions explains why only four dissertations have been written on the Armenian genocide and why all happen to be in line with Turkey’s official view.
In another article for Al-Monitor, I had written also about how Turkey’s non-Muslims’ birth registries were marked with secret codes and how the non-Muslims could not become army officers, judges or policemen. And this latest example — the lack of even one academic thesis contesting Turkey’s official position on the Armenian problem — is another indication that certain taboo realms are besieged by unwritten but stern rules.
True, the Armenian taboo has been broken in Turkish civil society and intellectual life. Yet, it continues to exist in this or that form in the “official” realm. Thanks to the exposure of practices such as the TTK request for information about academics studying the Armenian problem, we are getting clues on how Turkey’s official theses are being produced and sustained.
No doubt, the exposed practices represent only part of the whole picture. To understand fully why, how and in what atmosphere Turkey’s official theses remain intact, the known pieces need to be brought together with the pieces that remain beyond our knowledge. Only then will we be able to know how Turkey’s official history theses are able to survive unchanged.
Orhan Kemal Cengiz is a human rights lawyer, columnist and former president of the Human Rights Agenda Association, a Turkish NGO that works on human rights issues ranging from the prevention of torture to the rights of the mentally disabled. Since 2002, Cengiz has been the lawyer for the Alliance of Turkish Protestant Churches.
Source: al-monitor.com
As part of a special operation, Turkish police has arrested 83 prostitutes aged 25-45 from Azerbaijan Moldova, Russia, Georgia and Ukraine. The “Azvision.az” site interviews some of them.
One of the women told that she was forced to do prostitution in Turkey in order to feed her two minor children in Baku. “Please, do not publish my photos. My father and mother are respected people. They think that I’m working at a shop here,” says the woman.
Another woman said that she wanted to return to Azerbaijan, but the unemployment and the poverty have made her to become a streetwalker. “I came to work here two years ago from one of the Azerbaijani regions,” told the prostitute.
The stories of other Azerbaijani prostitutes are in the same spirit – poverty, unemployment and the need to feed the family. The price range of their services is 50-100 Turkish liras. Part of it goes into the pocket of the pimp, by the rest of the money they survive in brothels.
According to the Turkish police more than 2 thousands of Azerbaijani prostitutes have been expelled from the country in recent years.
ATHENS
Four Turkish people have been arrested in northwestern Greece after being caught trying to smuggle seven Syrian and Afghan migrants to Italy, Kathimerini reported.
Greek police made the arrests on Dec. 22, with the four men charged with helping the immigrants onto a truck on the Athens-Ioannina highway.
One of the four men was driving the truck, another helping him and two more were in a car, acting as lookouts, the report said.
According to authorities, the migrants had agreed to pay 5,000 euros in total to be taken to Italy. The four Turkish suspects, aged 36 to 48, were facing a prosecutor in Ioannina Dec. 23.
December/23/2013