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New Iranian firms in Turkey stir front company worries for Ankara

atatwolf

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17 February 2013 /TODAY'S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL
An unexpected number of Iranian-financed firms set up shop in Turkey in January, a development likely to cause discomfort in Ankara as Iran looks to develop a network of middlemen in Turkey and elsewhere to sidestep crushing international sanctions meant to halt its nuclear program.

There were 28 Iranian-funded foreign companies established in Turkey in January, which ranked just behind German investors, according to a report released by the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) on Friday.

The development continues a trend of an unprecedented number of Iranian-funded firms opening their doors in Turkey since international sanctions against Iran began in earnest two years ago. A previous TOBB report published in September 2012 stated that 651 Iranian-funded foreign companies were established in Turkey in the first nine months of 2012 and a total of 2,140 companies funded by Iran in 2011, other TOBB data show. This was a 40 percent rise over 2010.

In turn, the trend has caused Ankara worry that potentially illegal activities by those Iranian companies will risk an unwanted confrontation between Ankara and its Western allies over US and EU-imposed sanctions, as well as several UN Security Council resolutions. Many of those firms, which are predominately listed as power generation, electronics and communications companies, are suspected by the US and EU of helping the country procure supplies under embargo.

It isn't the only way that Iran has made Turkey its ally against sanctions, though the US this month moved to block another Turkish lifeline to Iran, the “gold for gas” trade which saw Turkey export gold to Iran in exchange for Iranian natural gas and petrol. The trade saw Turkey export around $6.5 billion in gold to Iran in 2012, a more than tenfold increase over the year before.

But while Turkey has traditionally been defiant about its right to continue that trade, arguing that Iran supplies 30 percent of its daily natural gas supply and it is too large a quantity to fully replace with imports from elsewhere, Ankara is likely to bow to pressure on a new US measure to block sales of precious metals to Iran. The new measure targets Halkbank, which has been used as an intermediary to convert the lira Tehran receives in gas sales into gold accounts. According to Reuters, Iranian couriers are then believed to withdraw gold from those accounts and ship the gold to Iran.

But while highly visible intermediaries like Halkbank can be targeted, the smaller front firms looking to sneak goods and merchandise under the embargo may be much harder to stop. Previous reports by Today's Zaman have shown that those companies use a number of poorly regulated intermediaries like Iraq and Pakistan to re-route merchandise from Turkey, or use the porous Esendere border crossing in Yüksekova in the southeastern Turkish province of Hakkari.

The TOBB statistics provided by new Iranian firms entering Turkey also suggest that illegal actions may be afoot. A TOBB report in January last year saw 63 Iranian companies register in the month, versus just 36 German companies. Given that Germany's trade with Turkey is over twice as high for that year, it suggests that many of those companies may indeed be fronts.

Last January's numbers also suggest that the overall number of Iranian firms registering in Turkey declined over the year, a trend Former Justice and Development Party (AKP) Mardin deputy Cüneyt Yüksel told Today's Zaman was likely the result of declining confidence and capital among non-front Iranian firms, expecially in the tourism sector.

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Antalya Deputy Mehmet Günal meanwhile told Today's Zaman that Turkey and Iran have different views on the Syrian issue, a difference which could also be a contributor to the decline in the number of Iranian businesses.

Even if Turkey does crack down on suspicious Iranian firms, there are still likely ways Tehran will be able to ship parts critical for its nuclear program through its borders. This weekend a report by nuclear watchdog, the Institute for Science and International Security, reported that Tehran has used China as a conduit for specialized magnets needed to develop nuclear weapons.

In July of last year Washington took its most notable step to stop front companies from supplying Iran, releasing a list of ships and banks that it said were helping Tehran acquire a nuclear weapon. The US and the EU have worked to freeze financial transactions and to fine companies knowingly doing business with fronts for Iran.
 
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Maybe then Iran should pull all l it's company out and stop giving Turkey the 50% of your energy imports you get from Iran as well?

Don't forget, Turkey gets 50% of it's energy from Iran. all Iran has to do is close the flow and Turkey will collapse in few days.
 
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No wonder. Even in Istanbul, too many of them setting up shop. :blink:
 
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I was a non-Turkish citizen and I had 2 Yapi Kredi accounts (one which i only used to pay bills and utilities) and a Halk bankasi account which i set up in less than a week.


Turkiye is not a difficult place to do business. It takes just 3 days to setup a business and get it registered, you just need to sign your name 300 times on different sheets of paper and get some documents stamped off at the "noter" (notary public)


i speak from experience.....



so it wont be hard for Iranian to bypass sanctions. But i dont think gold barter or trade can sustain an economy. Most of Iranian private and state biz would be conducted via Dubai and Kuwait like it has been for much of the past decade
 
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Maybe then Iran should pull all l it's company out and stop giving Turkey the 50% of your energy imports you get from Iran as well?

Don't forget, Turkey gets 50% of it's energy from Iran. all Iran has to do is close the flow and Turkey will collapse in few days.
We have Azerbaijan. We can relay on them. So don't worry. Iran doesnt' have leverage of Turkey. Iran can only hurt itself by cutting oil. We will just switch to Azeri oil if they do.
 
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Even Iran is investing in Turkey, Ofcourse becuase most of the population is still fairly young and hard working. As long as its benefetial for our economy...:coffee:
 
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Iranian firms should stay away. They cause trouble.
Who are you? How can you have right to say something about my country's relationship with iran. Ones like you are puppet of western countries, i know it. And iran totally has the right to set up iran-funded many firms as many western companies did in our country. IR Iran is our brother's country. All nations in this region are friends and all muslims are brothers we dont want to western colonizer companies actually exploiting our money and energy. You dont have right to say something about my muslim country.
 
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Sanctions are biting hard to the bone, Currency is down by 40%, insistence on Uranium Enrichment is intact.
 
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atatwolf excuse me, who are you? Are you an elected person by turkish public? My turkey is a independent country and we should not bow usa sanction on iran, iran can do bussiness as many others.Aditionally this newspaper, above given report in, is gulen's newspaper and gulen is a puppet of usa.
 
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Who are you? How can you have right to say something about my country's relationship with iran. Ones like you are puppet of western countries, i know it. And iran totally has the right to set up iran-funded many firms as many western companies did in our country. IR Iran is our brother's country. All nations in this region are friends and all muslims are brothers we dont want to western colonizer companies actually exploiting our money and energy. You dont have right to say something about my muslim country.

Who are you to decide who is a western puppet or not,and made you in charge of OUR country?
And since when is Iran our brother country(mullahs in charge),and who decides all muslims ar brothers?
All the trouble we got is coming from muslim countries.
Its not your muslim country,its The Turkish Republik.
You want sharia law to?
This a forum where evryone has the same right,so act accordingly.
And btw WHO ARE YOU?
 
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atatwolf excuse me, who are you? Are you an elected person by turkish public? My turkey is a independent country and we should not bow usa sanction on iran, iran can do bussiness as many others.Aditionally this newspaper, above given report in, is gulen's newspaper and gulen is a puppet of usa.

Simple and naive minded imbecile, Your just a little puppy that still havent opened his eyes to the real world. Hope your not gonna start barking about Iran being a 'Brother' nation soon, and that we shoud have 'Muslim unity'. Iran is public enemy number one for Turks, Clashes for influance have already started, Simply look at Syria. And by the way, your suppose the 'represent' us Turks now? Who gave you the authority and said you supposedly are the real representative of Turks, Retard.

Nontheless, As said before, As long as it benefits our economy, I dont have anything against these Iranians firms settling in Turkey. They cant really do any harm, So there is not really a point in this thread. Bussenis is just bussenis.
 
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