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That’s rich: Turks seek escape to Greece

May 13, 2017 By administrator

rich: Turks seek escape to GreeceWith purges intensifying, rich Turks are mopping up real estate in Greece. Old tensions may loom, but the incentive for secular Turks is sweet: visa-free stay in an EU member state. Anthee Carassava reports from Athens.

A lanky man in a bright red shirt paces across a wood-paneled waiting room. He peers out of the window, then plops into a comfy black chair, bouncing back up again within minutes to place a string of telephone calls, pacing the room once again.

Unnerved by the presence of a reporter, the lanky man shies away from any conversation, refusing to divulge his name and details of his family and their whereabouts.

“I’m just looking,” he says, glancing over a listing of apartments on sale in central Athens, making casual and polite talk.

When the conversation, however, shifts to developments in his homeland, the mid-aged man raises a critical eyebrow. And when the name of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan comes up, he breaks his silence. “I never trusted that man,” he tells DW in broken English. “God knows what he is capable of and what more he can do. One can only be prepared.”

Read: Greece rejects new extradition request for Turkish soldiers

For hundreds of thousands of secular Turks concerned about Erdogan’s descent from democracy, Greece is proving a surprise escape.

Escaping Erdogan

Since a mutinous faction of Turkey’s armed forces moved to overthrow the government there, real estate agents in Athens have been inundated by Turkish clients. Many realtors speak of a 50 percent rise in interest in the past year. But following the April referendum that gave sweeping powers to Erdogan – intensifying a colossal purge tearing the heart of any remaining hope of democracy that depends on independents voices, justice and an unfettered political competition – interest has rocketed even further.

That’s 10 times more than the 37 Turkish nationals who searched his site ahead of the April 16 referendum.

“Turks have a knack for rebounding and maneuvering during crises,” says. “So what this new-found interest comes down to is not that Turks have suddenly decided to pick up their belongings and move to Greece,” says the Turkish-born realtor, “it’s that Turkey’s wealthy, well-educated 1 percent is preparing for a ‘Plan B’ if things go really sour there.”

Sweet incentive

With Greece offering visa-free stay for investments over 250,000 euros, well-to-do Turkish families are mopping up real estate deals to secure the future of their offspring.

Read: Greeks still hostile to reforms despite economic depression

On one sunny afternoon this week, the lanky man in the bright red shirt met up with Arslanoglou to survey a number of flats in central Athens. Hours prior, and as the Turkish government mounted a fresh crackdown on dissent and free expression, a high-profile Turkish newscaster flew to Athens to close a deal, purchasing a seaside penthouse along the Greek capital’s southern suburbs.

Under the so-called Golden Visa program, Greece offers five year visa-free stay to investors and their immediate family. The plan was set up in 2013 to attract much-needed foreign capital, luring deep-pocketed Chinese, Egyptian, Lebanese and Russian nationals. Since then, only 49 visas had been issued to Turkish nationals.

In the month that followed the July attempted coup, Greece’s interior ministry issued 21 permits, decreeing 100 percent more in the last three months, in the run up to the controversial April referendum. Scores more are said to be being processed, while the government, eager to attract more investments, is considering dropping the 250,000 euros benchmark investment for the Golden Visa program, according to local media.

Bad blood forgotten?

“Our most modest projections,” says Ioannis Ziavras of the Remax real estate agency, “forecast a 30-percent rise within the next six months.”

Just a decade ago, a mere blink in centuries of testy ties and bad blood between rival Greeks and Turks, such interest would have been snubbed. But now, strapped for cash, seven years into a devastating crisis that has seen property price plunge by as much as 50 percent, many locals claim they can not afford to be defiant.

Read: Foreclosed Greek homes go under the online hammer

“I’ve been trying to sell a flat for over a year to pay tens of thousands of euros in debt and back taxes,” says Michalis Zafiriou a young restaurant owner. “I couldn’t care less whether a Turk picks it up.”

Others, though, remain wary. “We must not forget. And all, is definitely not forgiven,” Maria Beinoglou, whose parents were forced out of Istanbul last century and who defiantly still calls the city Constantinople, told DW. “These people, though, are not to blame. It’s politics and Erdogan we have to keep under close watch.”

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: escape, Greece, rich, Turks

Rome’s Police spokesman: Saudi embassy helped Erdoğan’s son to escape the police custody; using a forged Saudi passport and disguised as an Arab diplomat

March 12, 2016 By administrator

Bilal Erdoğan

Bilal Erdoğan

According to Rai News 24, Italian police spokesman Lt. Colonel Domenico Grimaldi accused the Saudi legation in Rome of facilitating the escape of Bilal Erdoğan who was detained for money laundering allegations. Bilal Erdoğan’s short detention in Rome and later escape are the latest in a series of scandals hitting President Erdoğan’s family.

“Mafia activities continue to plague our judicial system and the Polizia di Stato is blamed for this humiliating security lapse in Rome airport. We also found that a notorious mafia gang active in Calabria and Sicily was hired by members in the Saudi embassy and they managed to release Mr.  Erdoğan from Regina Coeli Prison,” police spokesman Lt. Colonel Grimaldi told AFP.

They moved Bilal Erdoğan to Excelsior Hotel, added Lt. Colonel Grimaldi, and Erdoğan was caught on cameras leaving the Hotel, donned traditional Arab dress and adroitly disguised as a Saudi diplomat; Bilal passed the security check holding a fake Saudi diplomatic passport and we believe, he couldn’t have escaped without the connivance of a number of police officers in Leonardo da Vinci Airport.

Saudi and Turkish regimes try to expand their intelligence cooperation and harmonize efforts to overthrow the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Source: AWD News.com

Filed Under: News Tagged With: custody, Erdoğan’s son, escape, police, Rome, saudi

Iraqi defense minister escapes assassination attempt

September 7, 2015 By administrator

Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi (C) delivers a speech during a press conference in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on September 6, 2015. (© AFP)

Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi (C) delivers a speech during a press conference in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on September 6, 2015. (© AFP)

The Iraqi defense minister has escaped an assassination attempt in the country’s embattled northern province of Salahuddin, where unidentified militants opened fire on his convoy.

A source in the Iraqi Defense Ministry, requesting not to be named, told Arabic-language al-Sumaria satellite television network that Khalid al-Obeidi was on a visit to the Tal Abu Jarad area, which lies north of the provincial capital city of Tikrit, on Monday, when a sniper opened fire.

The source added one of Obeidi’s guards was wounded in the assault, but the minister himself was unharmed.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. However, Iraqi officials usually blame such assaults on Daesh Takfiri terrorists.

Obeidi was touring the area to watch over military operations in the oil-rich city of Baiji, located some 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad.

Daesh kidnaps over 100 Iraqi children

Meanwhile, members of the Daesh Takfiri militant group have abducted more than 100 children from various districts of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The spokesman for the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Mosul, Saeed Mamouzini, said Daesh extremists have kidnapped 127 minors, aged between 11 and 15, over the past few days in the city, located some 400 kilometers (248 miles) north of Baghdad.

He added that the Takfiris have shifted the abductees to their training camps on the outskirts of Mosul, where they are being forced to undergo training to carry out acts of terror.

Separately, Daesh militants abducted 35 civilians in al-Khan village, located on the outskirts of Hawijah city, on Monday, alleging that they had burnt the terrorists’ black flag and called on Daesh elements to leave the area.

The terrorists later moved the abductees to an unknown location, and there is no information about their fate and whereabouts.

Gruesome violence has plagued the northern and western parts of Iraq ever since the Daesh Takfiris launched an offensive in June 2014, and took control of portions of Iraqi territory.

The militants have been committing vicious crimes against all ethnic and religious communities in Iraq, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians and others.

Units of army soldiers and volunteer fighters are seeking to win back militant-held regions in joint operations.

Source: presstv.com

Filed Under: News Tagged With: assassination, Defense Minister, escape, Iraqi

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