foreign Archives

Netanyahu once again suspected of shady relations with foreign businessmen

July 5, 2016 By administrator

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

(Presstv) Israel’s prime minister, who is already suspected of having accepted more than USD one million worth of “donation” from a French fraud brain, is now the subject of a new investigation.

Back in March, it was reported that Benjamin Netanyahu had had shady relations with a French individual considered by French prosecutors as the “brain” behind one of the biggest frauds in history.

The Frenchman, Arnaud Mimran, along with his partners, is accused of stealing between EUR 300 million to 1.6 billion (USD 334 million to 1.7 billion) in a fraud case commonly referred to in Europe as “the scam of the century.”

On Monday, Israel’s Channel 2 reported that police were now probing whether the Israeli prime minister had received illegal contributions from foreign businessmen during his current tenure.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is reportedly assisting the probe, which the Channel said has grown into a full-blown investigation.

Reacting to the recent report, Netanyahu said, “It’s nonsense.”

“Every time I go for a historic visit abroad, we hear about investigations,” he told reporters while in Uganda as part of his first trip to Africa.

His office also accused Mimran of having created the hype as a means of deflecting attention from his own case.

In May, Israeli comptroller Yosef Shapira cited a “fear of criminality” concerning Netanyahu’s finances when he was the finance minister over a decade ago.

It said he had received funding from private organizations and donors for family travels between 2003 and 2005.

Netanyahu’s wife, Sarah, has also been accused of using state funds to pay for private costs, including for the purchase of garden furniture for the residence, and mishandling funds from recycled bottles.

CSTO Foreign Ministers adopt statement on Karabakh

July 4, 2016 By administrator

csto fm YEREVAN. – Following the July 4 Yerevan meeting, the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers adopted a statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Syria. This was stated by Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbanduian at a press briefing following the meeting

Stressing that it is great honor for Armenia to host such a meeting, the foreign minister said that in the framework of Armenia’s chairmanship in the organization, Yerevan will host a meeting of the Collective Security Council in October.

Preparation for the upcoming session was discussed during today’s meeting.

According to the minister, the focus of today’s meeting was the first strategy of the CSTO until 2025. The ministers also discussed the process of implementation of the agreements and decisions taken at the previous meetings.

“Armenia has always played active role in the organization,” he said.

In turn, the CSTO Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha said that the focus of the organization remain the issues of combating terrorism.

Pope very rarely has such heavy agenda, say foreign journalists

June 24, 2016 By administrator

The foreign journalists accompanying Pope Francis during his trip to Armenia admit that the pontific’s agenda is not normally so busy as now.

Speaking to Tert.am, Andrea Gagliarduci, an Italian journalist and analyst (Catholik News) who always covers papal visits and meetings, said the Pope very seldom has such a busy schedule.

She said they have visited with a full team to attend and cover all the ceremonies and events to be arranged on the sidelines of the visit. The Italian journalist, who represents a Catholic media outlet, said the current visit is of special significance for them, especially after the 2015 holy Mass in Vatican (when the Pope used the word “genocide” to refer to the World War I ear massacres of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire).

An Associated Press reporter, who is of Georgian descent and whose name is Tako, says journalists’ work is responsible and important.

A Russian reporter said that the global interest in the Pope’s historic visit to Armenia is understandable. He is grateful for favorable working conditions and expressed hope that good conditions will be ensured during the coming two days. Russia’s catholic community would never forgive Russian media outlets for failing to cover the papal visit to Armenia.

“This is a significant event for believers. The Pope has said you are the first Christian people so it is good such events are taking place here,” says Sergey.

China launders cash of foreign criminals, AP investigation reveals

March 28, 2016 By administrator

Scam artists, drug cartels and gangs from around the world have found a new haven for laundering money.

The country’s well-developed underground financial networks have caught the attention of foreign criminals who are using China to clean their dirty money and pump it back into the global financial system — largely beyond the reach of Western law enforcement, an Associated Press investigation has found.

As China globalized, sending people and money abroad, so too did its criminal economy. Gangs from Israel and Spain, cannabis dealers from North Africa and cartels from Mexico and Colombia have laundered billions in China and Hong Kong, slipping their ill-gotten gains into the great tides of legitimate trade and finance that wash through the region, according to police officials, European and US court records and intelligence documents reviewed by the AP.

Gilbert Chikli, a convicted French-Israeli con man, understands China’s allure. He is widely credited with devising a scam so successful that it has inspired a generation of copycats. Called the fake CEO, fake president or business email compromise scam, the fraud has cost thousands of companies, many of them American, $1.8 billion in just over two years, according to the FBI.

“China has become a universal passageway for all these scams,” said Chikli. “Because China today is a world power, because it doesn’t care about neighboring countries, and because, overall, China is flipping off other countries in a big way.”

China’s central bank and police refused repeated requests for comment. In a regular briefing with reporters Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said “is not, has not been, nor will be in the future a center of global money laundering.”

Chikli made millions by impersonating top executives and intelligence agents and convincing employees at some of the world’s largest companies to transfer money to his bank accounts, according to French legal documents. He told the AP he laundered 90 percent of that stolen money through China and Hong Kong.

“It’s immense,” he said in an interview at his sleek, three-story home in Ashdod, a port town on the Mediterranean.

A French court convicted Chikli last year of defrauding five companies of 6.1 million euros — La Banque Postale, LCL bank, HSBC, Accenture and Thomson, a French technology company. He was also convicted of attempting to extract over 70 million euros from at least 33 others, including Barclays, American Express and the company that runs Disneyland Paris. He was sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison and fined 1 million euros.

Today he remains a wanted man, but lives openly in Israel, where authorities refused to comment on his case. Israel and France share no bilateral extradition treaty, but Israel has surrendered French citizens in some cases.

Chikli told the AP his preferred method for laundering money was import-export schemes. He would bounce stolen funds to front companies in Hong Kong, then have the cash withdrawn and used to buy merchandise in China. He’d purchase, say, 20 tons of steel, but bribe the vendor to give him a receipt for 100 tons. Then he’d sell the goods and send the money to Israel, where the false invoices made the entire sum look like legitimate trading profit.

“Give me the documents and everything is fine,” he said.

Such trade-based money laundering is a growing concern to U.S. authorities. Three Colombians based in Guangzhou, China, led a global money-laundering network that moved over $5 billion for Spanish and Mexican drug cartels, according to a U.S. Justice Department indictment unsealed in September. The network allegedly spanned the United States, Colombia, Spain, Ecuador and Venezuela.

Like Chikli, they processed illegal profits through bank accounts in Hong Kong and China and cleaned the money by buying merchandise, often counterfeit, which they shipped and sold in Colombia and elsewhere, according to the indictment.

Chikli insists he no longer runs fake CEO scams, but a new generation of fraudsters is copying his technique. Like Chikli, they direct stolen funds to China and Hong Kong. The FBI traced fake CEO scam transfers to more than 70 different countries. “At the very top of that list is Hong Kong and China,” Jay Bienkowski, a supervisory special agent with the FBI in Washington, said in an interview with the AP prior to his retirement.

Police believe some of the networks now running fake CEO scams are collaborating with Chinese migrants in Europe to launder money, using a version of the ancient Chinese value transfer system called fei qian (FAY ch’ien), or flying money. In June, French police busted a similar operation in a Chinese wholesale district just north of Paris, where merchants are accused of laundering money for North African drug dealers.

“Non-Chinese criminal groups committing CEO frauds are sending money to China because Chinese criminal groups in Europe are giving them cash,” said Igor Angelini, head of financial intelligence at Europol, the European Union law enforcement agency. “The scale of this phenomenon is quite substantial.” Chinese authorities generally have done little to help Western companies targeted in fake CEO scams, according to European intelligence documents reviewed by the AP.

The US State Department, in a report this month, reproached China for lackluster performance on money-laundering investigations. “U.S. law enforcement agencies note China has not cooperated sufficiently,” the report said.

Europol also has no cooperation agreement with China. Once funds land there, they vanish.
“For us it’s a blind spot,” said Angelini. “What happens after that is a black hole.”

Syria warns foreign troops would return home ‘in coffins’

February 6, 2016 By administrator

Associated Press

DAMASCUS: Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem warned Saturday that foreign ground troops entering Syria without its approval would “return home in wooden coffins.”

His comments came after Saudi Arabia said earlier this week it would be willing to send troops as part of a U.S.-led military campaign against ISIS. The group controls large parts of Syria and Iraq.

Moallem said conventional wisdom and logic would suggest the idea of Saudi troops in Syria is far-fetched, but that “with the crazy Saudi leadership nothing is far-fetched.”

“Any ground intervention in Syria, without the consent of the Syrian government, will be considered an aggression that should be resisted by every Syrian citizen,” he told a news conference in Damascus. “I regret to say that they will return home in wooden coffins.”

Moallem’s comments capped a week that saw the collapse of U.N.-led efforts to launch indirect peace talks between the Syrian government and an opposition delegation in Geneva.

The talks broke down in large part because of Syrian government offensives, including on the outskirts of Aleppo, once the country’s largest city. The offensive, aimed at encircling rebel strongholds in Aleppo, was backed by intense Russian airstrikes and sent thousands of area residents fleeing toward a closed Turkish border.

Moallem said the government advances signaled that the five-year-old Syria war is nearing its end. “I can say, from the achievements for our armed forces … that we are now on track to end the conflict,” he said. “Like it or not, our battlefield achievements indicate that we are headed toward the end of the crisis.”

Opposition representatives have said they cannot be expected to negotiate in Geneva at a time when the Syrian government and its allies, including Russia, are escalating attacks on rebel strongholds.

Moallem dismissed the representatives of the Saudi-backed opposition in Geneva, suggesting they followed orders from Saudi Arabia and were “not real Syrians.”

He alleged the opposition never intended to negotiate seriously. “They did not come to have dialogue, they did not have such orders,” he said.

Moallem said the Syrian government was ready to have dialogue with Syrians, but without preconditions.

Foreign capital fleeing Turkey FAST hits 2.5-year high on Fed, jet crisis

December 8, 2015 By administrator

Jolted by strong signals from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) for a hike in interest rates in its Dec. 16 meeting and escalated diplomatic tension between Russia and Turkey, foreign investors in the Turkish stock exchange, Borsa İstanbul (BİST), sold off $1.14 billion worth of stocks in November, the highest amount since June 2013.

Having recorded a short-lived rally immediately after the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) regained its parliamentary majority after a five-month hiatus on Nov. 1, assets at BİST dropped 5 percent in value for the whole month, during which the Fed deemed a rate hike more likely than before, attracting investors to assets in the US. Also, Turkey’s downing a Russian jet on Nov. 24 over a border breach at its Syrian border also unnerved investors, with BİST dropping more than 4 percent on the same day.

Foreign nationals made a net purchase of $2.58 billion in 2014, during which they bought $392 million worth of government bonds. This group of investors has sold $5.9 billion worth of government bond this year so far, of which $405 million were sold in November alone.

Quoted by the Hürriyet daily on Tuesday, Murat Barışık, a senior executive at the Ata Yatırım consulting firm, said November saw the greatest exodus from Turkey since the Fed’s announcement in June 2013, which triggered a capital exit from emerging markets.

Lone wolf syndrome in Turkish foreign policy

May 28, 2015 By administrator

By MURAT YETKİN,

Do you know why Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan has continued to slam the New York Times ever since its recent editorial, accusing it of “interfering” in Turkish politics and using language like “Who do you think you are?” and “Know your place”?

Because, as the country heads to critical parliamentary elections on June 7, this kind of rhetoric works in domestic politics.

It is the same reason why Erdoğan finds a reason to hit out at “Western imperialists” and their plans in the region, even while Turkey is an effective member of the Western military alliance NATO. It is the same reason why he denounces the U.S. and the European Union over “double standards” when it comes to Turkey, making this an everyday issue in his rallies.

This helps to consolidate votes and it makes foreign issues a factor in domestic politics, along with the main issue of the economy. It appeals to the nationalistic pride of Turkish voters.

A recent survey conducted by Istanbul’s Kadir Has University about public perceptions of Turkish foreign policy revealed that nearly 39 percent of Turks think the country has no friends. This is followed by another 38 percent who think Turkey’s only friend is Azerbaijan. That is followed by Turkish Cyprus at 9 percent, and Bosnia-Herzegovina and the United States at 6 percent. All of those countries, (apart from the U.S., which 35 percent of respondents described as a “threat”), are either of Turkish descent or, like Bosnia, were a dear part of the Ottoman Empire.

Apart from the U.S., 42 percent of Turks see Israel as a threat, 22 percent see Syria as a threat, 20 percent see Armenia as a threat, 15 percent see Iran as a threat, and 11 percent see Iraq as a threat. What about “historical rivals”? Russia and Greece are both at about 10 percent. All these countries are in Turkey’s neighborhood.

That “surrounded by enemies and conspired against” mood is also clear in Turks’ alliance perception.
In the poll, the most popular answer to the question, “Which country or countries Turkey should act together with in its foreign policy?” is “Turkey should walk alone,” which was chosen by 22 percent. Some 20 percent said “Muslim countries” and 19 percent said Azerbaijan.

Turks love Azeris as they are of the same descent, and indeed this appears to be a strong factor, because another 16 percent say Turkey should mostly act together with the “Turkic republics” beyond the Caucasian Azerbaijan.

Turks like to feel like the lone wolf, but if they have to act together with anyone then “brothers” and “cousins” are apparently their most favored partners. Under the circumstances, the U.S. should probably be proud to be favored by 13 percent, followed by Russia at 9 percent.

When Dr. İbrahim Kalın – the foreign policy advisor of President Erdoğan, and now also the deputy secretary general of the presidency – came up with the concept of “precious loneliness” as the government was being criticized domestically and internationally for losing friends in the neighborhood, many people interpreted it as an unconvincing justification of foreign policy failure. But it may be much more than that. It is turning out to be a domestic political leverage, which not only reflects the foreign policy perceptions of the average Turk but also manipulates them toward the ballot box.

Erdoğan’s recent “The World is Bigger than Five” campaign is an example of this. He actually had a point when he raised the issue of unfair representation in the five-member U.N. Security Council. The campaign had no international effect, but it did appeal to the national pride of ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) supporters, working as a consolidating agent.

Given the perceptions profile of Turkish voters, it is not realistic to expect dramatic shifts in the AK Parti’s foreign policy if it stays in power after June 7. In fact, perhaps, according to survey, we should start calling it Erdoğan’s foreign policy.

Source: hurriyetdailynews

Debunking propaganda from Turk Ministry of Foreign Affairs website justifying genocide.

March 26, 2015 By administrator

@ArmGenocide100 @TurkeyFailed Debunking propoganda from Turk Ministry of Foreign Affairs website justifying genocide. pic.twitter.com/i4dQEGRbsS

— Origins Discovery (@OriginsD) March 26, 2015

Also see
Erdoğan Belligerent call Bring your documents, gagrulenet Video Respond

Turkey angered as Austria bans foreign money for Muslim groups

February 26, 2015 By administrator

A sign leading to the Islamic Center mosque, (Photo: Reuters)

Austria’s parliament passed a law on Wednesday that seeks to regulate how Islam is administered, singling out its large Muslim minority for treatment not applied to any other religious group.

The “Law on Islam” bans foreign funding for Islamic organizations and requires any group claiming to represent Austrian Muslims to submit and use a standardized German translation of the Quran. report Zaman

The law met with little opposition from the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic population, was backed by Austria’s Catholic bishops and was grudgingly accepted by the main Muslim organization. But it upset Turkey’s state religious establishment.

“We want an Islam of the Austrian kind, and not one that is dominated by other countries,” said Sebastian Kurz, the 28-year-old conservative foreign minister –formally the minister for foreign affairs and integration — who is easily Austria’s most popular politician.

Austria’s half a million Muslims make up about 6 percent of the population and are overwhelmingly the families of Turkish migrant workers. Many of their imams are sent and financed by Turkey’s state Religious Affairs Directorate, the Diyanet.

Mehmet Görmez, head of the Diyanet, said before the law was passed that “with this draft legislation, religious freedoms in Austria will have fallen back a hundred years.”

Austria’s biggest Islamic organization, IGGiO, accepted the law, but its youth arm opposed it, as did the Turkish-financed Turkish-Islamic Union in Austria (ATIB), which runs many mosques and has vowed to challenge the bill in the Constitutional Court.

Egypt’s president blames Sinai attacks on foreign conspiracy

October 25, 2014 By administrator

Speaking in the aftermath of attacks in Sinai that killed at least 31 Egyptian soldiers, President el-Sissi claimed foreign powers were behind the attack. He vowed to take extreme measures to uproot militants.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi blamed a foreign conspiracy on Saturday for attacks on army checkpoints in the Sinai Peninsula that killed at least 31 Egyptian troops. He pledged to take drastic action against militants.

Speaking before cameras ahead of a military funeral for the soldiers killed in the attack, el-Sissi said a “foreign-funded operation” was responsible, and vowed to take extreme measures to root out those responsible.

On Friday, two attacks by militants in the Sinai Peninsula on the border of Israel and the Gaza strip killed dozens of soldiers. The attacks constituted some of the worst anti-government violence since former president Mohamed Morsi was ousted last year.

“There is a big conspiracy against us,” el-Sissi said as he stood with army commanders. He also claimed that the the attacks had benefited from “foreign support,” though he did not name any specific country or organization.

“Radical measures will be taken soon in the border area with the [Gaza ]strip to confront terrorism,” el-Sisi said.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but the extremist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis or “Champions of Jerusalem,” has carried out similar attacks on Egyptian security forces since Morsi’s ouster.

El-Sissi said in his remarks that the purpose of the attacks was to “break the will of Egypt and the Egyptians as well as the will of the Egyptian army, which is considered a pillar of Egypt.”

New security measures

Egypt is considering broadening the jurisdiction of military courts and displacing thousands of locals in order to widen a military buffer zone on the border of the Gaza strip. The expanded buffer zone would enable Egypt to pursue militants and destroy tunnels used to smuggle fighters and weapons.

On Saturday, Egypt’s National Defense Council declared a three-month state of emergency and imposed a 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew in areas near the borders with Israel and the Gaza Strip.

“Egypt is engaged in an existential war, which means that all Egyptians have to be united. The battle in Sinai is long,” el-Sissi said.

Egyptian officials have claimed that violence is being organized by the deposed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, which has been the subject of a rigorous crackdown since the military took back power last year. The Muslim Brotherhood has denied any involvement and condemned the attacks.

bw/jm (AP, Reuters, dpa)