Western diplomats say they are alarmed by reports that Mr Erdogan has negotiated a deal with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Tehran to make a substantial contribution to the campaign funds of Turkey’s leading Islamic party.
Under the terms of the deal Iran has agreed to transfer $12 million to the AKP, with further payments of up to $25 million to be made later in the year. The money is said to be meant to help support Mr Erdogan’s campaign for re-election for a third term in next year’s general election.
(click on the first paragraph for more)
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Hurriyet Daily News
15.09.2010
Turkey denies Daily Telegraph claim of Iran donation to AKP
Iranian and Turkish officials have vigorously denied claims by the British Daily Telegraph that Iran recently donated $25 million to Turkey’s ruling party ahead of next year’s general election.
“This incident has never happened and those allegations in the news story have no evidence,” Ömer Çelik, vice president of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, said Tuesday in a written statement.
Çelik also threatened to sue the daily unless it corrected the story.
….Despite the denials, author Con Coughlin defended his article Wednesday to online Turkish newspaper Gazeteport, saying the money had been transferred from the Iranian Ahl-Beit Institution to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan through the İHH, a Turkish aid organization some have accused of links with radical Islam.
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Commentary: I’m totally positive that AKP will never sue Daily Telegraph for this story is true. How do I know? Well, I live in Turkey and I’m not among the blinded masses. We already knew that AKP has always “borrowed” money to show the public that they have done a great job healing the economy, to pay for their campaigns and for numerous other reasons- except, we now know the source of the money.
Looking at the reader comments of this story, I agree with the reader who said “Money has not been an issue for the Prime Minister as money had always somehow appeared. Someone pointed out the charity fraud in Germany and The $25 Billion that came into Turkey which Erdoğan used as an investment fund during a speech. All laundered and brought into the possession of the AKP illegally. How on earth does a man own several luxury villas on the Bosphorus with the salary of a MP and PM?”.
It is also ironic that right after the referendum, Obama hailed “vibrancy of Turkish democracy” (he should have used the word “so-called” instead of “vibrancy”!)- and now the economic and political “pact” between his friend Erdoğan and his number one enemy Ahmadinejad is exposed. I wonder whether Obama knew about this… I guess we can never know since transparency in politics nowadays is nonexistent.
