Erdogan Says ‘Gang’ Within State Is Imperiling Turkey – Bloomberg
Erdogan Says ‘Gang’ Within State Is Imperiling Turkey – Bloomberg.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended his government from allegations of corruption and said he would fight back against a “gang” within his own state bureaucracy.
Taking his message public seven times in the past two days, Erdogan, 59, has lashed out at what he said was a campaign to destabilize the country in order to benefit financial speculators. The nation’s stock, currency and bond markets fell last week on concern the scandal is widening.
“A new attack has been launched against our government, democracy and the will of the nation,” Erdogan told thousands of supporters yesterday in the town of Turgutlu. “There are circles who are trying to set up a parallel state.”
Anger over the scandal sparked protests for a second day yesterday in several areas, including the Aegean city of Izmir, where police used tear gas and water cannons to prevent demonstrators from reaching a local branch of Erdogan’s party, the state-run Anatolia news agency said.
The protests were reminiscent of anti-government demonstrations that roiled the country in June. Police detained 70 people in Istanbul on Dec. 27, Anatolia reported.
Erdogan said the investigation, which has split the judiciary and pitted bureaucrats against one another, is an attempt to derail the government.
‘Corruption Scandal’
“They’ve dubbed this the biggest corruption scandal of the century,” Erdogan said. “You can’t stain anyone without evidence, you can’t declare them as corrupt from the start.”
On Dec. 27, as he returned to Istanbul, Erdogan was greeted by supporters at the airport. They chanted “traitor Bayraktar,” in reference to former Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, who last week urged Erdogan to step down.
Erdogan is increasing his appearances after a top judicial body blocked his order requiring the government to be notified of investigations, deepening a standoff that sent markets tumbling. That ruling was unconstitutional, Erdogan said. Opposition lawmakers countered that the prime minister was undermining the charter.
“The government isn’t going after thieves,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main oppositionRepublican People’s Party, said yesterday in the Black Sea port city of Samsun. “It’s chasing prosecutors and judges, and telling them to not catch the thieves.”
Investigation Urged
He called Erdogan “the prime minister of the corrupt,” and his party urged President Abdullah Gulto probe the allegations.
Turkey’s economy, the largest in the Middle East, has more than tripled in size in nominal terms during Erdogan’s 10 years in office. The majority Muslim country, the region’s only member in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, shares borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran.
The lira weakened as much as 2.3 percent to 2.1764 against the dollar on Dec. 27, before trading at 2.1549 in Istanbul. The Borsa Istanbul 100 Index (XU100) fell 1 percent at the close to 63,885.22, the lowest since August 2012. Two-year bond yields climbed above 10 percent for the first time since August.
Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said on his Twitter account that the economy will be quick to recover from what he called a soft-coup attempt. “We’ll disappoint doomsday sayers again,” Simsek said.
‘Significant Adjustment’
He said the weakening currency will lead to a “significant adjustment” of the current account deficit, though have a limited effect on inflation. Any economic slowdown is “likely to be temporary,” Simsek said.
The corruption investigation has become the battleground in a struggle between the government and followers of a U.S.-based imam, Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed by Erdogan’s supporters for instigating the crackdown. The cleric broke with Erdogan recently, ending a partnership that has helped sustain the single-party government since 2002.
Erdogan yesterday chided the prosecutor, Muammer Akkas, who was stripped of the graft investigation. “Are you a prosecutor or a member of an organization?” Erdogan said.
Fallout spread during the past week, with former Culture Minister Ertugrul Gunay quitting Erdogan’s ruling party, along with two others.
“Security forces can’t collaborate with the government,” Gunay told reporters in Ankara. “I’m warning civil servants who are following unlawful orders not to carry them out — you will be held accountable tomorrow for today’s violation of the rule of law.”
Army Statement
Turkish police have been caught in the struggle between Erdogan and Gulen. About 500 police chiefs were dismissed from their posts and reassigned after the sons of three ministers were among dozens detained. All three ministers were replaced by Erdogan last week.
Turkey’s military, which as recently as 1997 pressured the country’s first Islamist prime minister to step down, has steered clear of the fray.
“The Turkish Armed Forces in no way wants to be involved in political debates,” the military said in a statement.
The army, however, is asking for a retrial of hundreds of its members who were jailed in coup-plot cases, Milliyet newspaper said yesterday, citing what it said were remarks by General Necdet Ozel, chief of the military, during a closed-door National Security Council meeting Dec. 26.
Telephone calls by Bloomberg News to the military’s press office weren’t answered.
European Union Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule said in a statement that he was concerned by “the removal of a large number of police officers from their duties” and urged Turkey to “take all the necessary measures to ensure that allegations of wrongdoing are addressed.”
Turkey’s new EU Affairs Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quick to respond. The EU shouldn’t reach “prejudiced conclusions while interpreting domestic political developments in Turkey,” he said.
Protester killed during clashes in Bangladesh – Central & South Asia – Al Jazeera English
Protester killed during clashes in Bangladesh – Central & South Asia – Al Jazeera English.
![]() Supporters accuse authorities of keeping opposition figure Khaleda Zia under de facto house arrest. [AFP]
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Bangladesh police fired water cannon and shotguns at opposition protesters in the capital, killing one person, at the start of a banned mass march aimed at thwarting next month’s general election.Hundreds of demonstrators, some throwing home-made bombs, battled police on Sunday as they tried to gather at the opposition’s headquarters and other places throughout Dhaka for the so-called “March for Democracy”.
The opposition says an election scheduled for January 5 must be held under a neutral caretaker government, as in the past, to prevent ballot-rigging. BNP leader Khaleda Zia, a two-time former prime minister and Hasina’s arch-rival, has urged supporters to defy the ban on Sunday’s march and converge on the capital. In Rampura neighbourhood, more than 200 demonstrators threw small bombs at police who responded with shotgun blasts during clashes there that left one person dead, a senior officer said. Police have banned the so-called “March for Democracy” amid fears that the rally would become a focal point for more unrest after what has already been the deadliest year of political violence in the country’s history. Police have detained more than 750 opposition supporters as a “preventive measure”, while authorities have suspended Dhaka-bound bus, ferry and train services, virtually cutting off the city from the rest of the country. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies have staged weeks of deadly protests, strikes and transport blockades to try to force Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign. Dozens of people have been killed. Sticks and rocks Running battles erupted between police and protesters near the BNP headquarters where Zia was scheduled later Sunday to address the rally, TV footage showed. Ruling party activists, armed with sticks and rocks, also clashed with opposition protesters outside the press club. Scores of police stopped Khaleda Zia’s car as it tried to drive from her house to the march in the capital, where hundreds of her supporters are clashing with security forces, aide Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury said. “Khaleda Zia boarded her car and tried to leave her house to lead the march. But police barred her car from leaving,” Chowdhury, who is also a vice-president of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, told AFP news agency. Police and security forces have conducted nationwide raids, searching trains and buses to arrest opposition supporters. They have also set up check posts for passengers and commuters at the entry points to Dhaka. Security has been tight in the city with around 11,000 officers and the elite Rapid Action Battalion patrolling the streets and key flashpoints. |
Exxon, Kochs still support climate science deniers — now in secret — Transition Voice
Exxon, Kochs still support climate science deniers — now in secret — Transition Voice.
The largest, most-consistent money fueling the climate denial movement are a number of well-funded conservative foundations built with so-called “dark money,” or concealed donations, according to an analysis released Friday afternoon.
The study, by Drexel University environmental sociologist Robert Brulle, is the first academic effort to probe the organizational underpinnings and funding behind the climate denial movement.
It found that the amount of money flowing through third-party, pass-through foundations like Donors Trust and Donors Capital, whose funding cannot be traced, has risen dramatically over the past five years.
– Robert Brulle, Drexel University
In all, 140 foundations funneled $558 million to almost 100 climate denial organizations from 2003 to 2010.
Meanwhile the traceable cash flow from more traditional sources, such as Koch Industries and ExxonMobil, has disappeared.
The study was published Friday in the journal Climatic Change.
“The climate change countermovement has had a real political and ecological impact on the failure of the world to act on global warming,” Brulle said in a statement. “Like a play on Broadway, the countermovement has stars in the spotlight – often prominent contrarian scientists or conservative politicians – but behind the stars is an organizational structure of directors, script writers and producers.”
“If you want to understand what’s driving this movement, you have to look at what’s going on behind the scenes.”
Consistent funders
To uncover that, Brulle developed a list of 118 influential climate denial organizations in the United States. He then coded data on philanthropic funding for each organization, combining information from the Foundation Center, a database of global philanthropy, with financial data submitted by organizations to the Internal Revenue Service.
According to Brulle, the largest and most consistent funders where a number of conservative foundations promoting “ultra-free-market ideas” in many realms, among them the Searle Freedom Trust, the John Williams Pope Foundation, the Howard Charitable Foundation and the Sarah Scaife Foundation.
Another key finding: From 2003 to 2007, Koch Affiliated Foundations and the ExxonMobil Foundation were “heavily involved” in funding climate change denial efforts. But Exxon hasn’t made a publically traceable contribution since 2008, and Koch’s efforts dramatically declined, Brulle said.
Coinciding with a decline in traceable funding, Brulle found a dramatic rise in the cash flowing to denial organizations from Donors Trust, a donor-directed foundation whose funders cannot be traced. This one foundation, the assessment found, now accounts for 25 percent of all traceable foundation funding used by organizations promoting the systematic denial of climate change.
[updated Dec. 24] Jeffrey Zysik, chief financial officer for DonorsTrust, said in an email that neither DonorsTrust nor Donors Capital Fund “take positions with respect to any issue advocated by its grantees.”
“As with all donor-advised fund programs, grant recommendations are received from account holders,” he said. “DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund ensure that recommended grantees are IRS-approved public charities and also require that the grantee charities do not rely on significant amounts of revenue from government sources. DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund do not otherwise drive the selection of grantees, nor conduct in-depth analyses of projects or grantees unless an account holder specifically requests that service.” [end update]
Matter of democracy
In the end, Brulle concluded public records identify only a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars supporting climate denial efforts. Some 75 percent of the income of those organizations, he said, comes via unidentifiable sources.
And for Brulle, that’s a matter of democracy. “Without a free flow of accurate information, democratic politics and government accountability become impossible,” he said. “Money amplifies certain voices above others and, in effect, gives them a megaphone in the public square.”
Powerful funders, he added, are supporting the campaign to deny scientific findings about global warming and raise doubts about the “roots and remedies” of a threat on which the science is clear.
“At the very least, American voters deserve to know who is behind these efforts.”
Originally published at the Daily Climate. The Daily Climate is an independent, foundation-funded news service that covers climate change. Find us on Twitter @TheDailyClimate or email editor Douglas Fischer at dfischer [at] DailyClimate.org.
– Douglas Fischer, the Daily Climate