Turkey "Ali Baba's Cave" for Iranian-funded foreign companies?(TZ).Turkey uneasy with mushrooming Iranian firms, fears clash with allies.
The rapid increase of Iranian-funded foreign companies in Turkey at an unprecedented rate has raised alarm bells for Turkish authorities, who suspect some of these may be front companies set up to circumvent UN-sponsored sanctions.
Turkey is also concerned that some of the activities of Iranian companies may risk an unwanted confrontation between Ankara and its Western allies because of what is considered a violation of the US and EU-imposed unilateral sanctions, albeit not running afoul of UN Security Council resolutions.
“We are carefully watching the operations of these [Iranian-funded] foreign companies to see if they are in breach of Turkish law as well as international laws to which Turkey is a party,” one government official told Sunday’s Zaman.
The official spoke under the customary condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue on the bilateral relations between the two countries. “We won’t allow any of these companies to jeopardize our national interests,” he added.
According to the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), foreign companies financed by Iran in 2011 totaled 590, an increase of 41 percent compared to the previous year. That puts Iran on the top of the chart of new foreign companies established in 2011 not only in nominal numbers but percentage-wise as well. As of Dec. 31, 2011, the number of companies funded by Iran totaled 2,140, with a quarter having launched operation in the last year alone.
TOBB also reported for January 2012 that Iran topped the list for a month with 63 new companies, all limited company types with the exception of one. This is not commensurate with the level of current trade volume Iran maintains with Turkey. As of last year, the trade volume recorded $16 billion, mostly from Iranian natural gas and oil proceeds. Turkey imports some 30 percent of its oil needs from Iran, or 200,000 barrels per day, which represents over 7 percent of Iranian oil exports. Iran also meets one-third of Turkey’s natural gas demand as well. In contrast, Germany, Turkey’s largest commercial partner with $37 billion in non-energy trade, had only 36 companies established in January 2012.
“It is obvious that some of these companies were established to procure goods and merchandise for the Iranian economy in clear violation of the sanctions.They use smugglers to get the merchandise across the border with Iran,” a former senior executive of a Turkish company that has a multi-million dollar investment in Iran said. The executive spoke to Sunday’s Zaman on the condition that his name be withheld, lest it harm the business interests of his Turkish company. “Many of our contacts in Iran used to tell us that they can get anything across for the right price without any screening by customs inspectors,” he noted, adding that in some cases sensitive equipment goes to Iraq first to eventually find its way to a destination in Iran.
They also warned that Iranians use Turkish partners when setting up front companies to further complicate matters for Turkish authorities. The worry is that some of these serve as a conduit to finance rallies, for example, against the government’s decision to host a US radar installation as part of a NATO missile shield system. Others use schemes like charity events and fundraising drives -- using mostly the Palestinian cause laced with anti-Semitic rhetoric -- to mobilize people in Turkey. In recent months, Syria has also been thrown into the mix under the classic imperial appetite of the West to interfere in the Middle East.
The executive said Turkey, if unchecked, is on the way to replace the United Arab Emirates as a major hub to re-export goods to and from Iran.
Dubai, home to a sizable Iranian community, continues to be a leading destination for Iran to acquire goods and merchandise. The crackdown on Iranian-affiliated businesses in the UAE has apparently forced Tehran to find alternative markets to meet its domestic demand.
On many occasions, the US has already warned privately that some of the business deals between Iran and Turkey have violated US laws prohibiting the sale or transfer of American technology to Iran. Turkey played along for fear that it might have violated the terms of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act as well as the 1996-dated Wassenaar Arrangement, an export control regime for conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies. Some of these violations require the administration to report to the US Congress, which may lead to possible sanctions on entities and individuals involved. Ankara is afraid that it may eventually be shunned in the matter of acquiring or leasing high-tech US military hardware.
The Turkish government’s increased contacts with Iran in various fields have given ample opportunities for Iranians to penetrate into Turkey.
For example, Recep Akdağ, the health minister, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the Field of Health during his visit to Iran on June 23-27, 2010. The agreement is currently on the agenda in Parliament. When the parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee reviewed the agreement on Jan. 25, 2012, before approving it, members of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) objected to two clauses in the MoU, which said in Article 2 and 3 that both countries may cooperate “in areas deemed necessary” in addition to health. CHP members Oktay Ekşi and Aytuğ Atıcı argued that the statement is very vague and gives a blank check to the government to commit Turkey on issues that might bring irreparable damage to the country.
“This was simply the tip of the iceberg,” Atıcı told Sunday’s Zaman, blaming the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) for blatantly disregarding parliamentary oversight of international treaties. “What we asked was a legitimate question posed to the government. What is the aim of this vague sentence in the MoU? We were not given any satisfactory response from either AK Party deputies or the bureaucrats from the Foreign Ministry who were present at the commission’s deliberations,” he explained. “The sad part is that unlike other laws you cannot take international treaties to the Constitutional Court. Once it is adopted on the floor, it becomes binding on Turkey,” he added.
Take this MoU with Turkish Habertürk daily’s report last month that Iran was planning to send nurses trained in espionage to spy on Turkey, based on information sent to the Interior Ministry by an unidentified source, who claimed to be an Azeri Iranian.
Though the Iranian Embassy in Ankara officially denied the story, the Turkish Interior Ministry has since begun investigating Iranians who have applied to work in Turkey. It has also asked the Foreign Ministry to aid in the investigation. It is no secret that Iran has trained secret networks of agents across the Gulf States and the Middle East to attack Western interests, including Turkey’s, and incite civil unrest in the event of a military strike against its nuclear program.Hmmmmm.......................Obama shares a “friendship and bond of trust.”with Erdogan.Read the full story here.
“We are carefully watching the operations of these [Iranian-funded] foreign companies to see if they are in breach of Turkish law as well as international laws to which Turkey is a party,” one government official told Sunday’s Zaman.
The official spoke under the customary condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue on the bilateral relations between the two countries. “We won’t allow any of these companies to jeopardize our national interests,” he added.
According to the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), foreign companies financed by Iran in 2011 totaled 590, an increase of 41 percent compared to the previous year. That puts Iran on the top of the chart of new foreign companies established in 2011 not only in nominal numbers but percentage-wise as well. As of Dec. 31, 2011, the number of companies funded by Iran totaled 2,140, with a quarter having launched operation in the last year alone.
TOBB also reported for January 2012 that Iran topped the list for a month with 63 new companies, all limited company types with the exception of one. This is not commensurate with the level of current trade volume Iran maintains with Turkey. As of last year, the trade volume recorded $16 billion, mostly from Iranian natural gas and oil proceeds. Turkey imports some 30 percent of its oil needs from Iran, or 200,000 barrels per day, which represents over 7 percent of Iranian oil exports. Iran also meets one-third of Turkey’s natural gas demand as well. In contrast, Germany, Turkey’s largest commercial partner with $37 billion in non-energy trade, had only 36 companies established in January 2012.
“It is obvious that some of these companies were established to procure goods and merchandise for the Iranian economy in clear violation of the sanctions.They use smugglers to get the merchandise across the border with Iran,” a former senior executive of a Turkish company that has a multi-million dollar investment in Iran said. The executive spoke to Sunday’s Zaman on the condition that his name be withheld, lest it harm the business interests of his Turkish company. “Many of our contacts in Iran used to tell us that they can get anything across for the right price without any screening by customs inspectors,” he noted, adding that in some cases sensitive equipment goes to Iraq first to eventually find its way to a destination in Iran.
They also warned that Iranians use Turkish partners when setting up front companies to further complicate matters for Turkish authorities. The worry is that some of these serve as a conduit to finance rallies, for example, against the government’s decision to host a US radar installation as part of a NATO missile shield system. Others use schemes like charity events and fundraising drives -- using mostly the Palestinian cause laced with anti-Semitic rhetoric -- to mobilize people in Turkey. In recent months, Syria has also been thrown into the mix under the classic imperial appetite of the West to interfere in the Middle East.
The executive said Turkey, if unchecked, is on the way to replace the United Arab Emirates as a major hub to re-export goods to and from Iran.
Dubai, home to a sizable Iranian community, continues to be a leading destination for Iran to acquire goods and merchandise. The crackdown on Iranian-affiliated businesses in the UAE has apparently forced Tehran to find alternative markets to meet its domestic demand.
On many occasions, the US has already warned privately that some of the business deals between Iran and Turkey have violated US laws prohibiting the sale or transfer of American technology to Iran. Turkey played along for fear that it might have violated the terms of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act as well as the 1996-dated Wassenaar Arrangement, an export control regime for conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies. Some of these violations require the administration to report to the US Congress, which may lead to possible sanctions on entities and individuals involved. Ankara is afraid that it may eventually be shunned in the matter of acquiring or leasing high-tech US military hardware.
The Turkish government’s increased contacts with Iran in various fields have given ample opportunities for Iranians to penetrate into Turkey.
For example, Recep Akdağ, the health minister, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the Field of Health during his visit to Iran on June 23-27, 2010. The agreement is currently on the agenda in Parliament. When the parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee reviewed the agreement on Jan. 25, 2012, before approving it, members of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) objected to two clauses in the MoU, which said in Article 2 and 3 that both countries may cooperate “in areas deemed necessary” in addition to health. CHP members Oktay Ekşi and Aytuğ Atıcı argued that the statement is very vague and gives a blank check to the government to commit Turkey on issues that might bring irreparable damage to the country.
“This was simply the tip of the iceberg,” Atıcı told Sunday’s Zaman, blaming the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) for blatantly disregarding parliamentary oversight of international treaties. “What we asked was a legitimate question posed to the government. What is the aim of this vague sentence in the MoU? We were not given any satisfactory response from either AK Party deputies or the bureaucrats from the Foreign Ministry who were present at the commission’s deliberations,” he explained. “The sad part is that unlike other laws you cannot take international treaties to the Constitutional Court. Once it is adopted on the floor, it becomes binding on Turkey,” he added.
Take this MoU with Turkish Habertürk daily’s report last month that Iran was planning to send nurses trained in espionage to spy on Turkey, based on information sent to the Interior Ministry by an unidentified source, who claimed to be an Azeri Iranian.
Though the Iranian Embassy in Ankara officially denied the story, the Turkish Interior Ministry has since begun investigating Iranians who have applied to work in Turkey. It has also asked the Foreign Ministry to aid in the investigation. It is no secret that Iran has trained secret networks of agents across the Gulf States and the Middle East to attack Western interests, including Turkey’s, and incite civil unrest in the event of a military strike against its nuclear program.Hmmmmm.......................Obama shares a “friendship and bond of trust.”with Erdogan.Read the full story here.
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