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Turkey’s CHP reveals alleged documents showing Erdogan offshore money transfers

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Erdogan family’s offshore transfers

The spokesperson for Turkey’s main opposition party has claimed that millions flowed between Turkish President Erdogan’s inner circle and an offshore company. Erdogan says the charges are fake.

It has been a challenging week for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erogan. International attention has been focused on the testimony of Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab in an Iranian sanctions-evasion case allegedly involving former ministers in the president’s government.

Back in Turkey, Erdogan is facing a claim from the country’s main opposition party that it has documents proving that individuals within the president’s inner circle made millions of dollars of offshore bank transactions to a British tax haven.

On Friday, the spokesperson for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Bulent Tezcan, held a news conference at the Turkish parliament, where he laid out his party’s allegations against Erdogan and his inner circle.

Tezcan showed off documents to the assembled press, saying that they were bank receipts detailing a total of $15 million (€12.6 million) in transactions between Bellway Limited, a company established in August 2011 in the British Crown dependency of the Isle of Man, and Erdogan’s close circle.

The British Isle has low-tax policies and is often described as a tax haven.

The allegedly involved individuals include some of the president’s closest relatives: his son, Ahmet Burak Erdogan; his brother, Mustafa Erdogan; his brother-in-law, Ziya Ulgen; and the father-in-law of Ahmet Burak Erdogan, Osman Ketenci. Erdogan’s former principal clerk Mustafa Gundogan was also allegedly involved.

Tezcan also distributed copies of the supposed original bank and SWIFT receipts to members of the press.

The veracity of the documents has yet to be verified. The CHP did not respond to a request for information from Deutsche Welle.

Company with £1 capital

The first bank-transfer accusations against Erdogan’s family came from CHP head, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, on Tuesday during an address to party members at the parliament.

According to the CHP, the Bellway company was founded with only £1 capital ($1.14, $1.35) by a Turkish citizen named Sidki Ayan and was soon after transferred to another Turkish citizen named Kazim Oztas, still with the same amount of money.

As Tezcan alleged, the company made transactions worth $15 million in the span of only under 20 days around one month after the new owner took over.

Source of the money

While the alleged bank receipts Tezcan showed to the press showed total transaction value, the main question in Turkey revolves around the source of the money and the direction of the money flow.

Kilicdaroglu previously had said that money had been transferred into the Bellway company, but at the conference on Friday, Tezcan asked aloud how the Bellway company could have paid millions of dollars after having begun with capital of just £1.

“Two things come to one’s mind: money laundering or tax evasion,” Tezcan said.

urak Erdogan, Osman Ketenci. Erdogan’s former principal clerk Mustafa Gundogan was also allegedly involved.

Tezcan also distributed copies of the supposed original bank and SWIFT receipts to members of the press.

The veracity of the documents has yet to be verified. The CHP did not respond to a request for information from Deutsche Welle.

Tezcan is the spokesperson for the largest opposition party in the Turkish parliament

Company with £1 capital

The first bank-transfer accusations against Erdogan’s family came from CHP head, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, on Tuesday during an address to party members at the parliament.

According to the CHP, the Bellway company was founded with only £1 capital ($1.14, $1.35) by a Turkish citizen named Sidki Ayan and was soon after transferred to another Turkish citizen named Kazim Oztas, still with the same amount of money.

As Tezcan alleged, the company made transactions worth $15 million in the span of only under 20 days around one month after the new owner took over.

Source of the money

While the alleged bank receipts Tezcan showed to the press showed total transaction value, the main question in Turkey revolves around the source of the money and the direction of the money flow.

Kilicdaroglu previously had said that money had been transferred into the Bellway company, but at the conference on Friday, Tezcan asked aloud how the Bellway company could have paid millions of dollars after having begun with capital of just £1.

“Two things come to one’s mind: money laundering or tax evasion,” Tezcan said.

Kilicdaroglu first claimed bank transfer proof on earlier this week. Erdogan has called him a liar and denied all claims.

The CHP spokesperson promised to hand over the alleged bank documents to the prosecutor. Ankara’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office had launched an investigation into the CHP accusations on Thursday.

The CHP has said that the issue is ethical and not criminal.

Also on Thursday, the Turkish parliament rejected a motion put forth by the CHP calling for the body to further investigate the claims. The CHP is the main opposition party in the Turkish parliament, where Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) holds a majority.

‘Not a cent’

Erdogan has denied the CHP’s claims, stating that “not a cent” was sent abroad. He also called on Kilicdaroglu to prove the allegations. Speaking at an event on Thursday,  Erdogan said that Kilicdaroglu would “pay the price.”

The president’s lawyer has said that the documents CHP put forth were fake.

Erdogan has said he would resign if the claims were proved true.

Erdogan said that his acquaintances mentioned in CHP’s allegations had sold a company and the money had been wired to them for that purpose. Erdogan did not elaborate on the details of a company owned by the five people or when and how it was sold.

Since the allegations first surfaced, Erdogan and his acquaintances have filed a lawsuit for moral indemnities against Kilicdaroglu worth 1.5 million Turkish lira ($383,000, €322,000).

Mahir Unal, the ruling AKP’s spokesperson, said on Friday, that the issue would further be dealt with in court and not in the parliament.

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/turkeys-chp-reveals-alleged-documents-showing-erdogan-offshore-money-transfers/a-41622223

Turkey’s creative schemes aim to discredit Zarrab case in US

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By Pinar Tremblay

As the world waited to see whether the US trial of Iranian-Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab would actually get underway today in New York after numerous postponements, speculation was growing that Zarrab might be cooperating with prosecutors. The news surely panicked any senior Turkish officials who fear they could be implicated in accepting bribes to facilitate an alleged money-laundering operation.

Zarrab is accused of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars through US financial institutions in a scheme designed to help Iran evade US economic sanctions in 2010-15. He was arrested in March 2016 while traveling in Florida. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has personally asked the US government to release Zarrab, which is raising questions about Erdogan’s possible involvement in the scheme.

As jury selection began today, the judge announced that Zarrab would not be going on trial this week, and that the only defendant would be a Turkish bank official.

The Turkish government, supported by an extensive media apparatus, has found a quite intriguing way to manipulate public opinion regarding the case. Turkish officials’ first and foremost worry is to keep themselves a safe distance from any possible revelations. Of course, shielding Erdogan and his family is of paramount concern.

Turkey’s government is shifting blame onto the Gulen movement, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization responsible for the attempted July 2016 coup in Turkey. Zarrab’s US trial is being presented in Turkey as a US-Gulen economic and political conspiracy against Ankara. Due to the rally-around-the-flag effect of the botched July 15 coup, the government has shifted any criticism coming its way onto the Gulen movement.

Turks who lost trust in their own justice system have shown a deep interest in the Zarrab case and affection for Preet Bharara, who was the US attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. In March 2016, the Turkish government started laying the groundwork for today’s offensive against members of the US justice system. For example, soon after Zarrab was arrested, a photo of Bharara surfaced on the internet that had been digitally altered to imply he was associated with the Gulen movement.

This month, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office said it is investigating Bharara and his successor, Acting US Attorney Joon Kim, claiming documents being used as evidence against Zarrab are of unknown origin and violate international law.

Now that Zarrab has most likely made a plea deal and that Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a deputy chief at Turkiye Halkbank, has become the sole defendant, Turkish eyes are glued to the trial. Atilla was arrested in March and his team of lawyers is paid by Halkbank. Zeyno Erkan, an independent journalist following the case, said that at the pretrial session, the judge warned Atilla his interests might conflict with the banks’ and asked whether he understood the possible repercussions of retaining a defense team paid by Halkbank. Atilla said he was fine with the situation.

However, though Atilla understandably would like a speedy and fair trial, the defense lawyers have been delaying the process: In Ankara corridors, it is agreed that the longer the trial takes, the better for Erdogan and his cohorts.

Another possibility is that Atilla might be working out a plea deal with the US government.

Turkey’s government uses intricate ways to muddy waters. As noted, three methods are particularly noteworthy: distorting evidence, targeting the personalities or motives of journalists or prosecutors, and presenting the trial as a coup against the Turkish economy directly and against Erdogan indirectly.

Distorting the evidence may be the most effective method to manipulate public opinion. Turkish news provides a rather vague and distracting picture of the trial process. For example, since the Nov. 21 pretrial session, the media has focused on a report claiming Atilla had been sworn in without raising his right hand. This just worsens the situation in Ankara where, regardless of their political affiliation, only a few can understand the reasons for the trial. Most are not able to see why America is involved and how American interests were harmed. Several asked Al-Monitor, “Why does the United States care about corruption in Turkey?”

Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for Erdogan’s office, told the French press that Turkey had to engage in trade with Iran because of its energy dependency and labeled the case a “political trial” that aims to tarnish Erdogan’s reputation. Kalin said there are no links between Erdogan and Zarrab. Most important, Kalin said, is that the United States is trying to replicate a case allegedly created by Gulenists in Turkey in 2014.

Zarrab had been arrested in Turkey during the “17-25 December corruption probe” in 2014. That case provided significant clues about Turkey’s evasion of US sanctions against Iran. However, Zarrab was released promptly and treated as a celebrity for supporting the Turkish economy — until his March 2016 arrest in Florida.

Now, in a Nov. 25 piece, columnist Abdurrahman Dilipak asks in the pro-government Yeni Akit, “Are [Gulenists] trying to accomplish what they failed to do in Turkish courts, now through the US justice system?”

The second method of obfuscation — personally targeting journalists and US prosecutors such as Kim and Bharara — has gone quite deep. Inside Turkey as well, outspoken Erdogan supporter Cem Kucuk said on television, “If you are a patriot, you see that this court is shaped against Erdogan and the Turkish nation.” In the meantime, news broke that wives of the police officials who ran the probe in 2014 were taken into custody Nov. 17.

The 2014 corruption cases in Turkey ended abruptly, with the Gulen movement being blamed for generating fake evidence. So why should Turkish officials worry that Zarrab might be found guilty? As the charges against Zarrab had been dropped in Turkey, shouldn’t they also be dropped in the United States? If all the tapes and documents of the Turkish probe were fake, then why does Turkey’s government worry about their origins?

For the third method, Turkey hopes to rouse patriotism by painting the trial as an economic attack. The Turkish lira has lost value against the dollar in international markets as foreign investors flee Turkey. This presents an opportunity to blame it all on the West rather than question the effects of nepotism, corruption or cronyism. Zarrab’s case has generated fears about possible sanctions against the Turkish banking system, which enjoys foreign cash flows because of high interest rates for investors. Media outlets that favor the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) explain the situation as a “US-led economic coup” against Turkey through the Zarrab case.

One senior bureaucrat told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “The case has widened the crack between Erdogan’s inner circle and the top echelons of the AKP. We fear that the state apparatus was bypassed to find a ‘diplomatic solution directly with the United States’ without involving diplomats in this problem. Now that we know for sure Zarrab’s return is not possible, all the state apparatus is expected to rally behind Erdogan. Yet there are serious doubts: Why is Zarrab so important? Not many people can answer this.”

The same senior official also said the Zarrab case is damaging Turkey’s relations with the United States and other countries. He noted, “Our relations with Saudi Arabia are also on the rocks.” The idea that money laundering in Turkey had helped Iran and Hezbollah would anger Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Indeed, that strain might well explain why Erdogan for the first time in his 15 years in national office directly criticized Saudi Arabia. Turkey is paying a high price due to the Zarrab case, and Turks deserve to know the reasons.

Pentagon ‘taking a look’ at halting weapons for Syrian Kurds as Turkey presses ban

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By Ellen Mitchell

The Defense Department on Monday said it is reviewing the process it uses to provide equipment and weapons to Kurdish fighters with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) but has not halted sending weapons.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Robert Manning told reporters that the department is “reviewing pending adjustments to the military support provided to our Kurdish partners in as much as the military requirements of our defeat-[Islamic State in Iraq and Syria] and stabilization efforts will allow us to prevent ISIS from returning.”

Turkey’s foreign minister said Friday that President Trump committed to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the United States would no longer supply arms to Syrian Kurdish fighters.

Turkey considers the SDF Kurds, known as the YPG, to be an extension of outlawed Kurdish insurgents within its country, the Kurdistan Workers Party.

“Mr. Trump clearly stated that he had given clear instructions and that the YPG won’t be given arms, and that this nonsense should have ended a long time ago,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a news conference last week.

The White House later released a statement that confirmed the topic was touched on but would not commit to a full-on ban.

Erdogan wants Aleppo reconstruction Project, have not problem contacting with Assad

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“Authentic Turkish Crime “Your Friend today your enemy tomorrow”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not ruled out possible contact with Bashar Assad, signaling a break with his long-held opposition to the Syrian president’s role in the Arab country’s future.   

“The political doors are always open until the last minute,” Erdogan said when asked about a possible contact or cooperation with Assad.

Erdogan’s comments were reported by Hurriyet newspaper and other Turkish media on Friday, made on board his plane returning from a trilateral meeting with Russia and Iran to promote a peaceful settlement in Syria.

Even though Russia and Iran have backed Assad’s government since the start of the Syrian conflict in March 2011 and Turkey has supported his foes, the three countries have teamed up to help mediate a peace settlement.

Ankara has toned down its anti-Assad rhetoric, and the climbdown was clear during the trilateral meeting with Russia and Iran in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on Wednesday.

Turkey made clear its “reservations” about Assad having any future role in Syria, Mahir Unal, the spokesman of the Justice and Development Party, told reporters.

Turkey Islamizes Denmark with More Mosques

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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan clearly sees Turks living in the West as a spearhead of Islam.

by Judith Bergman,

 

  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan clearly sees Turks living in the West as a spearhead of Islam.
  • “Yes, integrate yourselves into German society but don’t assimilate yourselves. No one has the right to deprive us of our culture and our identity”, Erdogan told Turks in Germany as early as in 2011.
  • This assessment of Milli Görüs, however, does not seem to bother Danish authorities, who appear to see no problems with their cities becoming Islamized by the Turks. How many more mosques will it take?
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan clearly sees Turks living in the West as a spearhead of Islam. This year, he told Turks living in the West: “Go live in better neighborhoods. Drive the best cars. Live in the best houses. Make not three, but five children. Because you are the future of Europe. That will be the best response to the injustices against you.” (Photo by Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images)
“Islam cannot be either ‘moderate’ or ‘not moderate.’ Islam can only be one thing,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on November 9. “Recently the concept of ‘moderate Islam’ has received attention. But the patent of this concept originated in the West… They are now trying to pump up this idea again. What they really want to do is weaken Islam…”
Erdogan is working on strengthening Islam in the West, something he does, among other ways, by building Turkish mosques in Western countries. It is hardly surprising that he does not want the West to “weaken Islam”, but at the moment there seems little risk of that happening. The establishment of Turkish mosques in Western countries appears to be proceeding apace with very little opposition. Conversely, building Western churches in Turkey is inconceivable.

Erdogan clearly sees Turks living in the West as a spearhead of Islam. “Yes, integrate yourselves into German society but don’t assimilate yourselves. No one has the right to deprive us of our culture and our identity”, Erdogan told Turks in Germany as early as 2011. This year, he told Turks living in the West:

“Go live in better neighborhoods. Drive the best cars. Live in the best houses. Make not three, but five children. Because you are the future of Europe. That will be the best response to the injustices against you.”

Erdogan is evidently working to ensure, by continuously building new mosques and expanding old ones across Europe, that Muslims will indeed be the future of the continent.

One Western country where Erdogan is ramping up Islam is Denmark. Two new Turkish mosques are about to open in the Danish cities of Roskilde and Holbæk; in the past year, two Turkish mosques opened in the cities of Fredericia and Aarhus. New Turkish mosques were opened in Ringsted and Hedehusene in 2013; and in Køge the existing mosque opened a cultural center. There are 27 Turkish mosques in Denmark; eight of them are expanding or wish to expand.

The new mosque in Roskilde, complete with minarets, is owned by Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). The inclusion of minarets is due to second- and third-generation Turkish immigrants, who wanted the mosque to look like a “proper mosque”.

“It is a general trend in all of Europe that Diyanet is expanding physically with new mosques, and through [the mosques] also religiously, politically and culturally” said professor Samim Akgönül, of the university of Strasbourg. He has analyzed the Friday sermons that Diyanet sends to mosques all over Europe; his analyses show that the sermons are full of political and nationalistic messages favoring Erdogan’s regime.

According to Tuncay Yilmaz, chairman of the board of Roskilde’s Ayasofya Mosque, “Diyanet is not political, I can promise you that. Obviously they belong to the Turkish state, but they are independent of the government”.

That statement is false. Diyanet is an agency of the Turkish government — and an extremely active one. As Gatestone’s Burak Bekdil has noted:

“In a briefing for a parliamentary commission, Diyanet admitted that it gathered intelligence via imams from 38 countries on the activities of suspected followers of the US-based preacher Fetullah Gülen, whom the Turkish government accused of being the mastermind of the attempted coup on July 15… Diyanet said its imams gathered intelligence and prepared reports from Abkhazia, Germany, Albania, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Montenegro, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mongolia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Turkmenistan and Ukraine”.

In Denmark, nonetheless, the newest Turkish-state mosque was welcomed with open arms. The mayor of Roskilde, Joy Mogensen, who knew that the Turkish government owned the mosque, participated in the ceremony of laying the foundation stone in February 2016. She claims that the very fact that she and the city’s bishop were invited to the ceremony meant that there were “good people” in the mosque working for “integration” — otherwise they would not have allowed “a Christian woman like myself without a headscarf” to participate in their ceremony.

One of those people “working for integration” is the chairman of the board of the mosque, Tuncay Yilmaz, who is also a member of the Roskilde city council for the Social Democratic party. He happens to have close ties to the radical Islamic organization Milli Görüs, which runs a travel agency where Yilmaz works. He organizes their trips to Mecca. “I am not a member of that organization” Yilmaz says. “The only connection is that I work for their travel agency”.

Clearly, Roskilde’s mayor does not consider Yilmaz’s affiliation a problem, nor does the city council. “If we had observed anything suspicious about that organization, we would have talked to him about it; but we haven’t heard anything like that” said Søren Kargaard, chairman of the Social Democratics in Roskilde, when asked by journalists about Yilmaz’s connection to Milli Görüs. Well, perhaps if Kargaard had bothered to look up Milli Görüs to inform himself about it, this is what he would have found, according to a 2005 report from the Middle East Quarterly:

“Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, has repeatedly warned about Milli Görüş’s activities, describing the group in its annual reports as a ‘foreign extremist organization’. The agency also reported that ‘although Milli Görüş, in public statements, pretends to adhere to the basic principles of Western democracies, abolition of the laicist government system in Turkey and the establishment of an Islamic state and social system are, as before, among its goals… As the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Landesverfassungsschutz) in Hessen notes: The threat of Islamism for Germany is posed … primarily by Milli Görüş and other affiliated groups. They try to spread Islamist views within the boundaries of the law. Then they try to implement … for all Muslims in Germany a strict interpretation of the Qur’an and of the Shari’a. … Their public support of tolerance and religious freedom should be treated with caution”.

This assessment, however, does not seem to bother Danish authorities, who appear to see no problems with their cities becoming Islamized by the Turks. That kind of ignorance — or pretense of ignorance — amounts to the dereliction of duty on the part of people such as the mayor of Roskilde and Mr. Kargaard.

How many more mosques will it take?

Judith Bergman is a columnist, lawyer and political analyst.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11400/turkey-denmark-mosques

 

Erdogan to Saudi crown prince: You don’t own Islam

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In harsh but indirect remarks addressed to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the Saudi official does not own the Islamic faith.

President Erdogan said on Friday that the notion that there was a “moderate” Islam and an “immoderate” one had been invented by the West to “weaken” the faith.

Speaking at a major investment conference in Riyadh on October 24, bin Salman had vowed to return Saudi Arabia to “a moderate Islam.”

“The term ‘moderate Islam’ is being lathered up again,” Erdogan said in his Friday remarks. “The patent of ‘moderate Islam’ belongs to the West. There is no ‘moderate’ or ‘immoderate’ Islam; Islam is one. The aim of using such terms is to weaken Islam.”

“Perhaps the person voicing this concept thinks it belongs to him. No, it does not belong to you,” President Erdogan said, without referring to Mohammed bin Salman by name.

While the official ideology in Saudi Arabia is Islam, an ideology known as Wahhabism is preached by government-sanctioned clerics in the country. That same ideology is practiced by the Takfiri terrorists wreaking havoc in the Middle East region and beyond, as well.

“They (the Saudis) say we will return to moderate Islam, but they still don’t give women the right to drive. Is there such a thing in Islam? I guess they will give this right when they turn to the moderate one,” Erdogan said, sarcastically.

Bin Salman was appointed the first in line to the Saudi throne by his father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in June. Since then, he has engaged in a string of radical economic and social projects that he has attempted to portray as “reformist” in nature.

But those projects have been widely seen to be more about consolidating personal power and less about bringing about real change to the country. Over the last two weeks, Mohammed bin Salman has been involved in an aggressive push to purge royals and businessmen critical of his policies under the banner of an “anti-corruption campaign.”

And while a royal decree was issued in September to lift the ban on women’s driving in June 2018, the Wahhabi clerics in the country remain free to preach their extremely intolerant ideology.

Denying Turkey a piece of the pie can break regional plot against Kurdistan

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Kurdistan Erdogan cash cowK

www.gagrule.net For last 10 years we have been exposing Erdogan fooling Iraqi Kurdistan leader Barzani and Kurdistan become Erdogan Cash cow but Barzani pretended Erdogan is brotherly friend now someone is telling the truth read bellow. 

By Osamah Golpy,

A convoy carrying heavy weapons belonging to Kurdish Peshmerga forces, crosses into Turkey from the Habur border crossing on Turkish-Kurdistani border in Sirnak province of Turkey, on October 29, 2014. The Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq then sent its forces to fight alongside the Kurdish groups against ISIS militants in the Syrian town of Kobane under a special arrangement with Turkey. Photo: Ahmet Bolat/AA

It is no secret that Turkey has been part of the regional punitive measures taken in cooperation with Iraq to bring the Kurdistan Region to its knees. It is also a fact that strong economic and security relations between Erbil and Ankara—At least from the Turkish point view—never meant the recognition of the Kurdistan Region. It was all profit-driven which gained Turkey tens of billions of dollars in trade exchange. Therefore, perhaps it is now time for the Kurdistan Region to get back at Turkey where it hurts—trade, though this requires the Peshmerga to keep a hold on Fish Khabur.
Turkey does not have land border with Iraq with whom it wants closer economic relations, especially after the defeat of ISIS and where an estimated $100 billion is going to be the cost of reconstruction. Turkey wants a big, if not the lion’s share, in contracts in these destroyed cities and trade with the rest of Iraq.
Turkey would not have any problem keeping Ibrahim Khalil as its main route into Iraq had Erbil and Baghdad enjoyed  good relations. But with Baghdad determined to cross every red line including marching into undisputed KRG territories, Ankara now suggests that Iraq goes all the way to Fish Khabur  and bypass  the Kurdistan Region. This is where Iraqi and Kurdish oil is exported to the world market, and where the borders of Kurdistan Region, Turkey and Syria meet. This means there is also a Syrian Kurdish layer to this story.
With Ankara’s blessing Baghdad has now established an extra checkpoint between the Turkish and Kurdish sides of Ibrahim Khalil gate. It could, in theory, tax goods and services heading to the Kurdistan Region, and deprive Erbil of further revenues, and spike prices in KRG markets, too. But this also leaves Erbil with an advantage.
Knowing that Turkey wants a share of Iraq’s economy post ISIS, and given the fact that Erbil is in control of all border areas with Turkey, Erbil can introduce high tariffs on goods originating from Turkey and destined for Iraq-controlled areas, making it economically unviable. This will inflict billions of dollars of damage of Turkish trade with Iraq. While such a measure may prompt Iraq and Turkey to impose a blockade, it is unlikely as it will hurt Turkey—the exporter—even more because consumers in the Kurdistan Region have already lost much purchasing power due to an ongoing crisis. It will deny Turkey itself the Iraqi market where Turkish goods will be in demand.
All these, demand that the Kurdish Peshmerga are not going to cede control of any border area or territory along the Turkey border regardless of the cost militarily. It may cost the Kurdistan Region many lives, difficult times, and even kill any chance of peace with Baghdad, but in the end it is a price that should be paid. This is speaking the kind of language Turkey understands. The language of risks to its trade. The above scenario will deny Turkey the piece of the pie it hopes to win by siding—As a Sunni-majority country—with a Shiite-majority state.
Ankara will wait and see if the Iraqi military and the Hashd al-Shabai will be able to open a border with Turkey, or the Peshmerga will put the brakes on it all.  Turkey will at the end of the day deal with whoever holds the key to that gate.

Turkey Erdogan on the moves detain 121 ex-Foreign Ministry employees

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Turkey’s state-run news agency says authorities have issued warrants for the detention of 121 former Foreign Ministry employees, suspected of links to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen whom Turkey blames for last year’s failed coup attempt, New York Times reported.

Anadolu Agency says that police launched simultaneous operations Thursday in about 30 provinces to detain the ministry employees. It says the suspects were previously fired from posts as part of a vast government crackdown on suspected followers of Gulen’s movement.

Some of the suspects are believed to have used an encrypted secret messaging app allegedly favored by followers to communicate with each other, according to Anadolu.

Turkey has arrested more than 50,000 people and purged over 110,000 from government jobs in the failed coup’s aftermath.

Gulen denies involvement in the coup attempt.

 

Source Panorama.am

How Erdogan Fool Kurdistan to call Referendum to get Mosul $100 Billion Reconstruction.

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Another Erdogan Successful False-Flag Operation

Another Erdogan Successful False-Flag Operation

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan applauded the Iraqi central government for almost clearing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the country, vowing that Turkey is ready for a joint struggle against “all terrorist groups,” including the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

In a statement to the media on Oct. 25 after meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Erdoğan said Ankara is ready to cooperate with Baghdad in the fight against PKK elements in the Qandil Mountains and the Sinjar region of Iraq.

He also said Turkey is ready to give all support to Baghdad as it seeks to reopen a crude oil pipeline from the Kirkuk oilfields to Turkey, through which Iraq stopped sending oil in 2014.

Talks are underway on a possible move to close down Turkey’s border with the autonomous Kurdish region, which last month held a non-binding referendum on independence, which both Turkey and Iraq strongly opposed, Erdoğan noted.

“From the beginning we have always said we support the territorial integrity of Iraq and we will continue [to do so] … I believe we have come to a positive point with the steps we have taken as Turkey, Iran and Iraq,” he said, touching on the measures taken after the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) held a referendum for independence on Sept. 25.

For his part, al-Abadi said his government will not allow any armed groups other than official forces operate on Iraqi lands.

“Our task is, of course, to ensure the territorial integrity of Iraq and to fight against all terrorist organizations that threaten not only Iraq, but the region,” he stated.

The Iraqi prime minister also said they discussed a project that could help stabilize in the region and stressed that his government gives importance to bilateral relations between Iraq and Turkey.

 

Erdogan says Israel’s Mossad spy agency has played a role in the recent Kurdish independence referendum

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at a meeting in Istanbul on September 25, 2017. (Photo by the Turkish Presidential Press Service)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Israel’s Mossad spy agency has played a role in the recent Kurdish independence referendum in northern Iraq.

During a televised speech in the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum on Saturday, Erdogan expressed sorrow that Iraqi Kurds had acclaimed the recent independence referendum with Israeli flags.

“This shows one thing, that this administration (in northern Iraq) has a history with Mossad, they are hand-in-hand together,” Erdogan said.

“Are you aware of what you are doing? Only Israel supports you,” he added.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) held a non-binding referendum on secession from Iraq in defiance of Baghdad’s stiff opposition on September 25. Kurdish officials said over 90 percent of voters said ‘Yes’ to separation from Iraq.

While much of the international community, including the UN, the European Union and Iraq’s neighbors, has opposed the referendum, Israel has been the only entity to openly support an independent Kurdish state, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backing “the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to attain a state” of their own.

Erdogan vowed that Iraq’s Kurdistan “will pay a price” for the “unacceptable” independence referendum.

“An independent state is not being founded in northern Iraq, but on the contrary a continuously bleeding wound is being opened,” he said.

“To ignore this reality benefits neither us, nor our Kurdish brothers in Iraq,” Erdogan said, urging Iraqi Kurds to “wake up from this dream” of independence.

Ankara has threatened a series of punitive measures against Iraqi Kurds, including shutting the land border between Turkey and the region and stopping the transit of oil from Iraqi Kurdistan to the southern Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Turkish carriers Turkish Airlines, Atlas and Pegasus suspended their flights to Iraqi Kurdistan for an unspecified period of time on Friday.

Before the Kurdish referendum, Ankara was boosting its trade ties with Iraq’s Kurdistan region, with Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani becoming a frequent visitor to Turkey.

In 2016, the business boom with Iraqi Kurds made Iraq, including the Kurdish region, the second-largest market for Turkish exports after Germany.

However, economists have warned that closure of Habur border gate between Turkey and Iraq’s Kurdistan could undermine the $7billion trade between Ankara and Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region.

After the Monday referendum, the Baghdad government ordered the KRG to hand over its international airports in Erbil, and the city of Sulaymaniyah, as well as its border crossings.

It also asked the KRG to either cancel the result of the plebiscite or face potential sanctions, international isolation, and military intervention.

A ban on international flights into and out of the Iraqi Kurdish region also took effect on Friday.

The KRG has refused to either hand over the airports and land terminals or annul the outcome of the vote.