March 13 2015 Zaman Publish Article: Book: Erdoğan’s son-in-law involved in Kurdish oil deal

December 3, 2015 By administrator

Berat Albayrak is married to President Erdoğan’s daughter Esra Albayrak. (Photo: Today’s Zaman, Mehmet Demirci)

Documents from an excerpt of a recently published book have revealed that the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took most of the shares of a lucrative oil deal signed between Ankara and Arbil in 2011 and laid the framework for the transfer of Kurdish oil via Turkish territory.

This revelation is the newest in a long list of corruption allegations involving the president. Erdoğan is himself locked in a battle to ward off corruption charges that first came into the public spotlight after the commencement of a sweeping graft investigation two years ago.

The Hürriyet daily’s Washington correspondent, Tolga Tanış, delves into the details in his book “Potus ve Beyefendi” (Potus and Beyefendi), which pinpoints the background of a deal struck between then-Prime Minister Erdoğan’s government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) shortly after the June 2011 elections that propelled Erdoğan to power for the third time.

The book also categorizes Erdoğan as a “politically exposed person [PEP],” which is a term used in financial regulation describing someone who has been entrusted with a prominent public function or a close associate of that person. Due to their position and influence, it is recognized that many PEPs are in positions that can potentially be abused for the purpose of committing money laundering (ML) offenses and related predicate offenses, including corruption and bribery, according to a definition by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The issue of transportation of Kurdish oil through Turkish territory generated a diplomatic rift with Baghdad, which accused Ankara of breaching relevant articles of Iraq’s constitution that regulate the oil trade, including redistribution of oil income through the central government and selling oil to third parties after obtaining permission from Baghdad.

Baghdad’s warnings went unheeded as Ankara inked a lucrative deal with the Kurdish administration, constructing new oil pipelines in an attempt to increase the daily oil flow from northern Iraq. For Baghdad, it was a clear violation of its sovereignty and constitution, and the move would encourage separatist feeling in Arbil. For Erdoğan’s government, however, it was just a business deal.

After he meticulously worked on details to build a coherent account in his book, Tanış reveals an underreported aspect of the story, in which Erdoğan appears as a central actor behind the oil deal. In his book, Tanış claims that it was Erdoğan’s son-in-law who was in charge of the Turkish company that controversially won the tender to distribute the Kurdish oil. Tanış painstakingly untangles the complicated web of relations and affairs that obscure the real ownership of the company, Powertrans, and argues that Berat Albayrak, who is married to Erdoğan’s daughter, Esra Albayrak, runs the operations of the firm that was granted the distribution rights for the Kurdish oil.

The company managed its operations by setting up new sub-companies abroad. Grand Fortune Ventures and Lucky Ventures are two companies that sprang into existence in Singapore. The companies own Powertrans. Albayrak at age 26 became CEO of the Çalık Business Group, owned by the Çalık family, which is close to Erdoğan. His lightning ascent to the pinnacle of power in the business world, Tanış argues, owes much to Erdoğan, who became personally involved in high-profile tenders and business deals to grant favorable shares to his family network.

Albayrak ran Powertrans’ oil operations while he was CEO of the Çalık Business Group. The company has so far earned nearly $700 million from its financial operations in Turkey. The book points to an emerging pattern suggesting that dozens of companies have recently sprung up after getting approval from the Cabinet, whose functions have been reduced to clear the way for establishing new firms in a short time. Patronage lay at the heart of this pattern, revealing politicians’ close connections to the business world, the journalist asserts in his book.

Tanış’s detailed account also reveals the network of business relations between the Erdoğan and KRG President Massoud Barzani’s family and other relatives, which helped overcome political disputes that once threatened to end in open confrontation between Turkey and the KRG in the 2000s. What opened the way for blossoming economic ties, the book claims, was the US-sponsored detente between Turkey and the KRG in 2007, leading to the establishment of the Turkish Consulate in Arbil in 2010. Erdoğan’s visit to the Kurdish region further cemented flourishing diplomatic ties, forging a new alliance between Arbil and Ankara to the envy of the central government in Baghdad.

Source:Zaman

Disputed Kurdish oil tanker mysteriously goes dark

August 29, 2014 By administrator

HOUSTON – Reuters

A still image from video taken by a U.S. Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft shows the oil tanker United Kalavyrta (also known as the United Kalavrvta), which is carrying a cargo of Kurdish crude oil, approaching Galveston, Texas, July 25. REUTERS Photo

A tanker near Texas loaded with $100 million of disputed Iraqi Kurdish crude has disappeared from satellite tracking, the latest development in a high stakes game of cat-and-mouse between Baghdad and the Kurds.

The AIS ship tracking system used by the U.S. Coast Guard and Reuters on Aug. 28 showed no known position for the United Kalavrvta, which was carrying 1 million barrels of crude and 95 percent full when it went dark.

Several other tankers carrying disputed crude from Iran or Iraqi Kurdistan have unloaded cargoes after switching off their transponders, which makes their movements hard to track.

Days ago, the partially full Kamari tanker carrying Kurdish crude disappeared from satellite tracking north of Egypt’s Sinai. It reappeared empty two days later near Israel.

And in late July, the tanker United Emblem offloaded part of its cargo of Kurdish crude onto another ship in the South China Sea.

Baghdad, which says it has the exclusive right to export the crude, has filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court to reclaim control of the United Kalavrvta cargo and block the Kurdistan Regional Government from delivering it.

The suit shows Baghdad is stepping up a legal and diplomatic push to stop Kurdistan from exporting crude, which the Kurds say is crucial to their own dreams of independence.

The court on Aug. 25 threw out an order issued to seize the cargo, saying it lacked jurisdiction because the tanker was some 60 miles offshore.

The judge has invited Iraq to re-plead its case over the rightful ownership of the cargo. Baghdad could file claims against anyone taking delivery of the oil.

A Coast Guard official said the vessel in the Gulf of Mexico might have turned off its beacon, sailed beyond antennas that monitor transponders, or perhaps some antennas might have been taken out of service.

However, dozens of vessels were visible on Aug. 28 in the Galveston Offshore Lightering Area, where the Kurdish tanker was last seen.

Tanker with piped Iraqi Kurdish oil U-turns away from U.S.

June 2, 2014 By administrator

By Julia Payne – Reuters

LONDON,— A crude oil tanker at the center of a dispute between Iraqi Kurdistan and Baghdad has reversed course from its route towards the United States, ship-tracking data showed on Friday, indicating that the shipper may not have a buyer.

The United Leadership oil tanker has become a symbol of a wider conflict between Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan over oil sales from the autonomous northern enclave, as it contains the first crude to come out of the region’s newly built pipeline into Turkey.

Since loading at the Turkish port of Ceyhan last week, the United Leadership set course for the U.S. Gulf Coast, according to ship-tracking and market sources.

The U.S. State Department said that it did not condone oil sales bypassing Baghdad, and that any buyers could risk a legal suit with the central government.

“We do not support the export or sale of oil absent the appropriate approval of the federal Iraqi government,” a U.S. State Department official said.

Despite its position, the U.S. has already imported small quantities of Kurdish oil, though not from the pipeline.

The Kurdish government insisted the oil is going to Europe, when asked about its U.S. destination and that it would be the “first of many such sales”.

“One million barrels was sold by auction to both Germany and Italy. No shipment was sent to the United States,” Moyad Talab, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Alliance to the central government, told Reuters.

HOMELESS

But for the moment, the oil appears to be homeless.

The tanker reversed course south of Portugal with a new destination, Gibraltar for orders, Reuters AIS Live ship tracking showed, suggesting that the lifter of the oil has still not found a place to put it.

Until last week, Kurdish oil exports were constrained to a small volume shipped by truck to two Turkish ports on the Mediterranean. Iraq’s state marketer made threats of legal action but did not follow through.

But the start of exports out of the Kurdistan’s pipeline means much more significant revenues for the region. Iraq swiftly announced that it filed an arbitration case against Turkey withwww.Ekurd.net the International Chamber of Commerce.

It also asked its customers to confirm they would never buy exported Kurdish oil, which they have done, an industry source with knowledge of the matter said.

In an effort to lock down the whole process of loading a tanker, Iraq’s state marketer SOMO told inspections company, Netherlands-based Saybolt, to cease analyzing Kurdish crude, industry sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Saybolt management could not immediately be reached for comment.

Iraq and Kurdistan were trying to reach a political agreement over the oil sales, but five months after the pipeline started up there had still been no final decision, prompting the Kurdish Regional Government to go it alone.

“There is no going back,” KRG’s Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said this week in parliament. “If we cannot reach a shared understanding, we have other options and we cannot wait forever. Why did we begin selling oil? In order to make Baghdad realize that we can do it.”

By Julia Payne – Reuters