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Mehmet Hakan Atilla stood in Manhattan federal court this week. ( AP )

US Jury to Decide Atilla's Fate in "Sanction Breaching" Case

Former deputy CEO of Turkish public bank Halkbank Mehmet Hakan Atilla completed his three-day testimony on Tuesday. He is facing a trial in which he is being accused of breaching US sanctions against Iran. Atilla became the only defendant in the case, after Reza Zarrab, who was the prime defendant, pleaded guilty and testified as a witness against the former banker, accusing him of the related crimes. “I did not conspire with anyone in any part of my life on that [evading sanctions],” Atilla responded to a question about whether or not he ever collaborated with Zarrab or anyone, on Friday during the first day of questioning by his lawyer.

December 20, 2017

Turkey Says Regrets to See Veto of U.N. Resolution on Jerusalem

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey regrets the vetoing by the United States on Monday of a U.N. Security Council resolution that called for the U.S. declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital to be withdrawn, the Turkish foreign ministry said. The United States was further isolated over President Donald Trump’s decision when it blocked a United Nations Security Council call for the declaration to be withdrawn despite the other 14 members voting in favor of it. “The United States being left alone in the vote is a concrete sign of the illegality of its decision on Jerusalem,” the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.

December 20, 2017

Turkey Denounces UAE Over Divisive 'Propaganda' Retweet

Turkey has accused the United Arab Emirates of spreading divisive propaganda after its foreign minister retweeted a post denouncing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's "ancestors" for their treatment of Arabs during the Ottoman Empire. Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE foreign minister, had shared on Twitter a post that accused Fahreddin Pasha - an Ottoman governor of Medina from 1916-1919 - of committing crimes against the local population, including stealing their property. "These are Erdogan's ancestors and their past with the Arabs," it said.

December 20, 2017
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US Trial of Turkish Banker Not Legal, Should Be Ended: Justice Minister

Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül has said he will tell his U.S. counterpart Jeff Sessions that the New York trial of former Halkbank deputy general manager Hakan Atilla, charged with helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions, is “not legal and should be ended.” Gül told private broadcaster 24 TV on the morning of Dec. 19 that it would be “impossible to accept a verdict contrary to Turkey’s interests” in the case, which has strained ties between the NATO allies. Atilla, 47, was arrested earlier this year in the United States for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. He is now the sole man on the dock accused of violating sanctions on Iran, bribery and money laundering, after Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, 34, pleaded guilty to the charges and is now a state’s witness.

December 20, 2017
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January 2019 Is Earliest Visa Appointment Date for Turkish Citizens: US Embassy

The U.S. Embassy in Turkey on Dec. 19 announced that the earliest date for visa appointments regarding non-immigrant applicants in its diplomatic missions in the country is January 2019, following a diplomatic spat that prompted the two NATO allies to mutually suspend granting visas. “In spite of long wait times, the U.S. Mission to Turkey continues to process non-immigrant visas. Appointments are available for January 2019, and applicants can as always choose to apply outside of Turkey,” the embassy stated on its Twitter account. “#USVisa appointments are still limited, but we are prioritizing F, J, M, and petition-based work categories as well as applicants with medical and business travel,” it added.

December 20, 2017
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Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, center, testifies before Judge Richard Berman, right, that he helped Iran evade U.S. economic sanctions with help from Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Jailhouse Transcript Reveals Zarrab’s Bargain with US Judiciary

"Ahad, it is not like that. I am telling you. Here, when you come around and say 'OK, yes, I did this s***,' look, this leaves you in peace. Once you confessed, they do not mess up with you." This was the exact sentence and an apparent confession of a plea bargain between the U.S. judiciary and Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader who is now a witness in a trial held in New York on now-lifted U.S. sanctions against Iran. Just like Turkey has charged from the beginning, it was revealed late Monday with the transcript of Zarrab's jailhouse call with his uncle, who goes by the name "Ahad," that the businessman has been involved in a clear bargain with U.S. authorities.

December 20, 2017
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Major General H.R. McMaster speaking at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in 2013. Photo credit: CSIS | Center for Strategic & International Studies / Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

McMaster Deepens America’s Isolation

On Tuesday evening, U.S. National Security Adviser Gen. H. R. McMaster spoke at Policy Exchange in Washington, recalled that "radical Islamist ideology is a grave threat to all civilized people" and singled out Turkey and Qatar as its main supporters today. The allegation sparked an outrage on Turkish Twitter and among senior officials in the Turkish capital of Ankara. To be clear, Mr. McMaster's remarks had nothing to do with "radical Islamist ideology" at all. Here's what makes the United States unhappy right now: First, the Astana process, which Turkey launched in cooperation with Russia and Iran, has rendered the U.S.-backed Geneva talks obsolete. At the same time, Turkey decided to purchase the S-400 air defense system from Russia instead of buying Patriot missiles from the United States. Finally, the Turks have been critical of Washington's plans to form a united front against Iran in the Middle East – featuring Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and others.

December 14, 2017
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FETO Spends 'Vast Amount' to Attack Turkey from US

Fetullah Gulen, the U.S.-based leader of the terrorist organization behind last year’s defeated coup, pays at least half a million dollars a month for lobbying activities in Washington, according the partner-lawyer of an international law firm. “Gulen has spent a vast amount of money on donations to officials. He spends anywhere from half a million to a million dollars a month just on lobbying in Washington,” said Robert Amsterdam, an international lawyer in Amsterdam & Partners LLP, a law firm with offices in London and Washington DC. Amsterdam & Partners LLP was retained by Turkey to pursue a global investigation into the suspicious activities of Gulen, the mastermind of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt.

December 14, 2017
Published in Reports
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Turkish Security HQ Summons FBI Representative

By Sibel Ugurlu, ANKARA - AA- Turkey-based FBI agent was summoned to General Directorate of Security in Ankara, a security official said on Wednesday. The FBI agent was summoned after Huseyin Korkmaz, a fugitive and former Turkish police supervisor, testified in a U.S. case against Halkbank executive Mehmet Hakan Atilla. Korkmaz was arrested for his links to Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and released in February 2016. He fled to the U.S. in August with the documents related to FETO's judicial coup attempt of Dec. 17-25, 2013 in his possession.

December 14, 2017
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National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster with President Trump. Getty Images

US ‘Committed to Its Strategic Partnership with Turkey’

By Michael Hernandez - WASHINGTON -AA - The U.S. said Wednesday it is "committed to its strategic partnership with Turkey to bring stability to the region and defeat terrorism in all its forms" amid a row sparked by comments from a senior Trump administration official. "We appreciate Turkey’s efforts to increase its border security, stem the flow of foreign fighters through its territory and fight on the ground to clear ISIS from key towns in Syria," a National Security Council spokesman told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or Daesh.

December 14, 2017
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WASHINGTON, USA - DECEMBER 12: (from left to right) Mona Yacoubian, Andrew Tabler, Hassan Hassan, and Kadir Ustun attend a panel discussion on "The Geneva Process: Toward a Political Solution in Syria" hosted by SETA DC in Washington, USA on December 12, 2017. ( Samuel Corum - Anadolu Agency )

Turkish Think Tank Hosts Discussion in US on Syria

A panel of experts in Washington held discussions Tuesday on a political solution to Syria’s ongoing civil war. Hosted by Washington-based think tank SETA DC, the discussion was titled “The Geneva Process: Toward a Political Solution in Syria”. Mona Yacoubian, a senior advisor at the U.S. Institute of Peace, Andrew Tabler, Martin J. Gross Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Hassan Hassan, a senior fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, and Kadir Ustun, executive director at SETA DC, took part in the panel. The discussion was moderated by Kilic Kanat, a research director at SETA DC. Participants agreed that actual developments in the field in Syria as well as peace talks in Astana and Geneva would directly affect a political process in the country.

December 14, 2017
Published in Academicians
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Groundbreaking at the Chobani factory in Twin Falls

As Chobani Expands Footprint in Twin Falls, City Reflects on Anti-refugee Backlash

By Patrick Sisson - Curbed.com - For Hamdi Ulukaya, founder and CEO of the Greek yogurt-making giant Chobani, Twin Falls, Idaho, helped his company expand in ways he could barely imagine when he arrived in the United States in 1994 as a Turkish college student who didn’t speak English. The small city of 48,000 in the Magic Valley, an agricultural center in the southern part of the state, home to the company’s 1 million-square-foot factory, will soon be the centerpiece of a new chapter for Chobani, one of the last decade’s most successful new food brands.

December 14, 2017
Published in Businessman
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The American Turkish Society Announces its Sixth Class of "Young Society Leaders"

NEW YORK, Dec. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Turkish Society is pleased to announce the sixth class of "Young Society Leaders," a group of 25 accomplished professionals with a demonstrated record of leadership ability and commitment to serve the U.S.-Turkish community at large. "We welcome the new class of Young Society Leaders and are extremely pleased to have an opportunity to recognize and work with these outstanding young leaders who will help form the dialogue and ties between our two countries," said Larry Kaye, Vice Chairman of The American Turkish Society who is overseeing the Young Society Leaders program.

December 13, 2017
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Reza Zarrab (2nd R) sits with lawyers Erich Ferrari (L), Marc Agnifilo, and Benjamin Brafman (R) as he appears in Manhattan federal court in New York, US, April 24, 2017. ( Reuters )

What Is Atilla Case In the US About?

The US case against the Iranian-Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab turned against Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the former deputy CEO of Turkey's Halkbank, after Zarrab pleaded guilty and made an agreement with the New York prosecutor’s office. A US prosecutor ordered the arrest of an Iranian-Turkish businessman in March 2016 for breaching US sanctions on Iran. After two months, those sanctions were lifted. Preet Bharara announced in a social media post, “Reza Zarrab to soon face American justice in a Manhattan courtroom.” Zarrab has been under arrest for more than 22 months, and has been accused of money laundering, and fraud against the US and its banking system. However, before the first day of his trial, his role was changed from a defendant to a witness.

November 29, 2017
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