Author: nina hovnanian

The New York Times / The International Herald Tribune
September 28, 2012 Friday

Turkey’s Opening Comes With Catch

By JON GORVETT

ISTANBUL — Recent changes to Turkey’s real estate laws that allow
more foreigners to buy property have given a boost to sales.

Yet, even as lawyers and real estate agents confidently say the
changes will increase Turkey’s attractiveness to foreigners, new visa
regulations and uncertainty about residence permits may prove
difficult for buyers intending to visit their new homes.

The revisions, which were passed in May but only came into effect Aug.
18, add citizens of 130 countries to the previous list of 53 whose
citizens may buy residences or limited amounts of land in Turkey. (The
final list is awaiting approval by the Turkish cabinet. Until then the
newly added citizens must wait, though it appears some sales have
moved forward regardless.)

The changes also make it easier for subsidiaries of foreign companies
to buy real estate in this Eastern Mediterranean country.

Over all, agents say, the changes could give a welcome fillip to the
high-end real estate sector, where activity has been steady this year
even though demand from traditional buyers in Europe has been held
back by economic concerns.

”This is very important for us in the sector and for the economy as a
whole,” said Arman Ozver, general manager of Sotheby’s International
Real Estate in Istanbul. ”In 2009, foreigners spent around $1.5
billion on Turkish real estate. We are now expecting at least four or
five times that figure in 2013.”

The latest figures from the Turkish Economy Ministry show that, from
January to July this year, real estate sales were up 7.6 percent from
the period last year.

The increase is widely credited to local residents and foreigners
already allowed to buy who are making purchases now with the
expectation that prices will increase as demand rises.

Until now, only citizens of countries allowing reciprocal real estate
purchasing rights for Turkish citizens, like Britain, Germany and the
Netherlands, were allowed to buy in Turkey.

Onur Gulsaran, a partner at the Istanbul law firm Cerrahoglu, said,
”individuals from many more countries — mainly Arab and Central
Asian ones — will now be able to buy in Turkey without reference to
reciprocity.”

In the past those foreigners could buy only after setting up a
Turkish-registered company, which would purchase the property. It was
not a popular procedure.

The latest figures from the General Directorate of Title and Title
Registries show that, as of end of August 2012, Bahrainis owned just
eight properties in Turkey and Saudi Arabians, 53.

In contrast, the figures show some 38,691 properties directly owned by
Germans, the largest group of foreign property owners, and 1,182 by
U.S. citizens.

Yet now, ”the Arab states alone have the potential to add a further
$2 billion to the Turkish real estate market,” said Hakan Yener,
Turkish district council coordinator for the Urban Land Institute, a
nonprofit education and research organization. ”Demand from them is
likely to be more in high-end projects and Bosporus-side mansions.”

Isik Gokkaya, chairman of the Turkish Association of Real Estate
Investment Companies, added, ”It’s expected that there will be an
increase in projects specifically targeting Arabs in the longer
term.”

Opening to Arab buyers could allow Turkish sellers to take advantage
of the turmoil in the region. ”The numbers of people coming from the
Middle East could rise a lot,” said Orhan Yavuz Mavioglu, a managing
partner and real estate expert with the Istanbul law firm ADMD Law.
”The region is boiling and everyone is trying to leave.”

”We closed three deals last week alone, all from Middle Eastern
countries,” Mr. Ozver of Sotheby’s said. ”Because Turkey is close to
that region, both geographically and culturally, it is easy for them
to come here.”

Russians also are free to buy now, a change that is expected to see
house sales increase in areas already popular with that country’s
tourists, like Antalya and the southern Turkish coast.

When it comes to land, a foreigner from one of the approved countries
now can buy as much as 300,000 square meters, or almost 75 acres, of
land. That is an increase from the 25,000 square meters previously
allowed, provided the buyer shows evidence that he intends to build on
the purchase within two years.

Previously, a foreigner also needed permission from the military,
granted on a case-by-case basis, to buy land.

The latest list of countries whose citizens are allowed to purchase
land or properties — the list that is awaiting cabinet approval —
maintains at least some of the previous restrictions when it comes to
citizens of Greece, a neighbor that has a long history of strained
relations with Turkey.

Residents of Armenia, which is not recognized by Turkey, continue to
be denied any right to buy.

The second major change in the law allows Turkish subsidiaries of
foreign companies where the foreign share is less than 50 percent to
have unrestricted purchases. Previously, the foreign share of a
company had to be just 10 percent or less.

Yet despite optimism among some brokers and industry observers, others
point to a major drawback: troubling new visa rules.

”Previously, a visitor from Europe or the U.S. could come here on a
90-day tourist visa, leave for a day and then come back for a further
90 days,” said Mr. Gulsaran of the law firm Cerrahoglu, which also
specializes in immigration issues. ”If you wanted to buy here, but
not be resident, this was fine.

”Yet earlier this year they also changed the visa rules so you could
only stay here for 90 days in every 180 days,” he added. ”And if you
are from a non-Western country, that period is even smaller.”

In addition, ”the local police still decide in Turkey if you will get
a residence permit, and owning a property here is still no guarantee
you will get one,” said Mr. Mavioglu of ADMD Law.

”This is the missing link,” said Mr. Ozver of Sotheby’s. ”It should
be made very easy to get a residency permit if you buy a house, and
the Turkish government must come up with some solution to this.”

A temporary stay of the change, introduced after many foreigners had
to leave the country in February, expired in August with no new
regulation in place. ”The government will have to do something,” Mr.
Mavioglu said. ”I mean, why would anyone buy a house here, if they
couldn’t stay in it?”

URL:

Joint energy programs with Iran a priority for Armenia

news.am
September 29, 2012 | 12:28

YEREVAN.- Joint energy programs with Iran are a priority for Armenia,
Deputy Energy Minister Ara Simonyan said in the parliament on
Saturday.

He stressed that developments over Iran and economic consequences
affected implementation of Armenia-Iran programs. Moreover, the
programs will require more financial resources. The construction of
Meghri hydro power station will cost $300 million and will be fully
funded by the Iranian side. About $10 million have been already spent
on geophysical and geotechnical survey operations.

Simonyan informed about a joint meeting of Armenian-Iranian
inter-government committee scheduled for October 22-25 in Armenia. The
sides will specify the start date for construction of hydro power
station.

Land users in the Nagorno-Karabakh provided since 2008 to date some
997 million drams worth loans

YEREVAN, September 28. / ARKA /. Land users in Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic have been provided since 2008 to date some 997 million drams
worth loans, of which 49% have been repaid so far, according to head
of the Fund to Support Agriculture Vahram Baghdasaryan, who spoke
during yesterday’s meeting convened by prime minister Ara Harutyunyan.

“The maturity of loans to the tune of 458 million drams provided for
spring sowing works in 2012, will expire on October 15,” according to
Baghdasaryan.

Heads of district administrations were told to take steps to ensure
the timely repayment of loans.

The prime minister said future assistance to farmers by the government
will depend on the pace of loan repayment.

“It is also necessary to specify what the farmers need- loans or
financial assistance and be guided by it while developing a new
lending program,” Harutyunyan said.. ($ 1 – 405.39 drams). -0-

14:03 28.09.2012

Armenians Should Vote 50 to 50

Igor Muradyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 16:19:38 – 29/09/2012

The Georgian society has contributed significantly to the development
of global politics making its elections strongly linked to
geopolitical viability and therefore in other countries elections are
fair or unfair, while Georgian elections are a projection of
geopolitical interests of foreign actors.

The Georgian political system is surprisingly projected in the state
of affairs in the United States in the 19th or the early 20th
centuries when real democracy was successfully combined with apartheid
and racial segregation. In modern Georgia the Armenian population is
viewed as a resource for the authorities which will support it in any
scenario. This shameful state of affairs was facilitated by support by
Armenia and different Armenian groups.

A successful attempt was made to liquidate the Armenian political
sector in Javakheti and Tbilisi. Instead an inactive marionette
organization was set up. The Georgian special services have
successfully mixed events and the situation so now it is necessary to
complete the previous scenarios and begin with a blank page in order
to figure out the current situation and come up with new initiatives.
This is happening now because there are no illusions about different
companies and groups in Javakheti and Tbilisi.

Now most countries with populous Armenian communities are in a
deadlock. The Armenian voters, independent from their affiliation with
one political group or another, must vote against the government. The
case of Russia was evidence that involvement in the interests of the
government is detrimental to not only the interests of the Armenian
population but also Armenia. Georgia and Russia are absolutely
identical in terms of style and substance of the country’s political
regime.

One way or another, geopolitics does not leave the Georgian elections
alone and is visible there. It is clear now that the entire network of
NGOs funded by the Western community is trying to instill in Armenian
voters that Bidzina Ivanishvili’s team and the Georgian Dream are more
nationalistic and literally hates the Armenians unlike Saakashvili’s
regime. In addition, the motivation of the NGOs is that the Georgian
Dream is Russia’s creation and all kinds of arguments and facts are
supplied to prove this.

Most probably, the anti-Armenian intentions of the Georgian Dream are
absolutely transparent though all the political groups if Georgia have
anti-Armenian moods. So what should the poor Armenians do?

There is nothing else to do but to stand firmly on our land and fight
for our rights. In this detestable situation it would be perfect to
vote 50 to 50. The Georgian government and policy deserve this.

The Armenian Georgians need the support of the Armenian political
organizations and mass media more than ever to be able to resist
pressure of local `Armenian authorities’ busy with processing their
piece of pie. In Georgia a new generation of Armenian public
organizations has emerged with a new mentality and a new understanding
of the present and future. They need to be supported.

As to geopolitics, everything is fine. The West sponsoring Georgia is
interested in the economic, social and spiritual strengthening of the
Armenian population in Georgia as an important factor of diversity in
that country, as well as prevention of Turkish expansion against which
Georgia is powerless.

Children protection level not sufficient in Armenia

news.am
September 29, 2012 | 13:45

YEREVAN. – The children’s protection level is not sufficient in
Armenia, Child Protection Network head Mira Antonyan said during a
press conference on Saturday.

In her view, the NGOs need to combine their efforts to help the kids
of needy families. `Together with the state, our task is to accept the
mission of helping these children,’ Antonyan said.

She added that, even in some cases, the family has no means of
purchasing items necessary for its newborn. `[And] When the newborn’s
young mother has nowhere to go, we try helping her,’ she stated.

To note, the Child Protection Network provides monetary and
psychological assistance to children.

The Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) Expresses Its `Unreserved Support’
for Vartan Oskanian

September 28, 2012 19:12

`The Prosperous Armenia Party expresses its unreserved support for its
member and is ready to achieve the restoration of justice by all
lawful means possible,’ the statement of the Prosperous Armenia Party
political council, which will be presented to MPs on Monday, reads.

Let us remind that the parliament will discuss the Armenian Attorney
General’s application to involve PAP member Vartan Oskanian in the
Civilitas Foundation case as an accused on that day.

`The Prosperous Armenia Party thinks that the Armenian Attorney
General’s application to the National Assembly to give consent to
involving National Assembly member Vartan Oskanian as an accused is
political persecution, which is against not only Vartan Oskanian, but
also the Prosperous Armenia Party. The accusations included in the
application are groundless and lack any legal justification. On
Monday, when this issue will be discussed, the Prosperous Armenia
Party will present a package of documents, which will explain the

groundlessness of the accusations of the Attorney General’s Office, to
all MPs. The Prosperous Armenia Party strongly condemns the use of
such methods in political issues,’ the statement reads.

Nelly GRIGORYAN

U.S. to give $14.6 million in assistance

12:43 pm | Today | Economy

The United States will give $14.6 million in assistance to Armenia.
The purpose is to foster economic growth and help effect healthcare
and social reforms.

Armenian Minister of Economy Tigran Davtyan and USAID Mission Director
for Armenia Ms. Karen Hilliard signed today the document on the 4th
tranche of U.S. assistance to Armenia. $14.6 million is provided in
addition to $56 million allocated to the Armenian government in 2010
when the country became more competitive.

Following the signing ceremony Karen Hilliard stated that they now try
to cooperate with the Armenian government directly, rather than
through other organizations.

Tigran Davtyan said that Armenian government has worked effectively;
otherwise no additional financing would have been provided. “It is
gratifying that assistance is given in the form of grants. Seeing that
the programs are implemented successfully and the policy of reforms is
conducted in the right direction, our partners, namely the World Bank
and the European Union have provided additional financing in recent
period”.

Armenian political parties respond to Prosecutor General’s petition

tert.am
21:38 – 28.09.12

At a discussion of Armenian Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovseptyan’s
petition for deprivation of Armenia’s ex-FM Vartan Oskanian of his
parliamentary immunity, which is scheduled for next Monday, the
Heritage party will decided on voting for or against the petition.

Ruben Hakobyan, Chairman of the Heritage parliamentary group, told
Tert.am that the group will first of all show a political approach
because, even if the charges are based on facts, the Prosecution’s
approach is obviously selective.

`The arguments are not convincing,’ says Vahan Hovhannisyan, an MP of
the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D).

The opposition bloc Armenian National Congress (ANC) intends to make a
decision next Monday. Lyudmila Sargsyan, an ANC member, believes it to
be political persecution.

Hovhannes Sahakyan, an MP of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia
(RPA), told Tert.am that the RPA will discuss the petition at the
Parliament’s meeting next Monday.

EGLISE ARMENIENNE
La réouverture de l’église Sourp Asdvadzadzine du village de Dzovinar
dans la région de Kégharkounik

Le 22 septembre le village de Dzovinar dans la région de Kégharkounik
a vu son église Sourp Asdvadzadzine (Sainte Mère de Dieu) consacrée
lors d’une cérémonie. Construite en 1900 par des réfugiés Arméniens en
provenance de Mouch (Arménie Occidentale), l’église avait été
transformée durant la période soviétique en un dépôt. Samedi dernier
elle fut rendue aux fidèles après la cérémonie en présence de
l’Archevêque Marcos Hovhannissian. Les travaux de rénovation furent
financés par le député Hagop Hagopian qui reçut après la messe, la
médaille « Sourp Krikor Loussavoritch » (Saint Grégoire
l’Illuminateur) d’Etchmiadzine.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 29 septembre 2012,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Sept 28 2012

Convention speech and ErdoÄ?an’s dream

ABDULLAH BOZKURT

Turkey’s powerful prime minister, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an, will be
delivering a keynote speech at his ruling Justice and Development
Party (AK Party) convention on Sunday, 11 years after he first formed
Turkey’s 39th party, in August 2001.

His young party swept the parliamentary elections a year later in
November 2002, becoming a very successful political movement and
leading to wins in the next two elections in 2007 and 2011 as well.

He has been instrumental in pushing the once-powerful military to its
barracks, restoring the relative balance on civilian-military
relations while maintaining impressive economic growth. Today, he is
at a critical juncture however his party’s rule has been facing huge
challenges from the recent surge of terror attacks to the emergence of
economic difficulties at home, and strained ties with neighbors in the
Middle East region. He has not been able to consolidate the
democratization process in Turkey yet, leaving the most important
pillar of a functioning democracy incomplete: a lack of a civilian
constitution.

His aides have been paying a lot of attention to every detail in his
upcoming speech, which will simultaneously be translated into seven
languages to convey his messages to foreign audiences. That means he
will devote a substantial portion of this impact speech to foreign
policy issues, while laying out a grand vision for Turkey in 2023 when
the republic will celebrate its centennial. In a television interview
this week, ErdoÄ?an stressed that his long speech on Sunday will be the
last one he will give as the chairman of the party at the party
congress, signaling that he is intent on delivering a memorable
speech.

Yet challenges the nation faces will make it harder for him to deliver
a speech that has considerable impact. Circumstances in Turkey’s
immediate neighborhood as well as the general outlook of global
affairs are not very promising for Turkey. I remember his speech in
the last party congress held in 2009 during which ErdoÄ?an was touting
foreign policy achievements to rally his supporters. He was making a
point that during his party’s rule, the nation has minimized
long-standing problems with its neighbors based on a newly adopted
`zero problems with neighbors policy.’

Unfortunately that policy seems to have collapsed with regard to many
countries in Turkey’s neighborhood. Of course not all the blame goes
to the AK Party government for the frayed relations with some of our
eastern and southern neighbors. The unnecessary deep engagement policy
with Iran did not benefit Turkey in any meaningful way and there has
been sort of undeclared war waged by Iran against Turkey because of
Ankara’s growing influence in the Middle East and North African
region. Relations with Iraq under the Shiite leader Nouri al-Maliki
have also worsened to the point that Maliki rebuffed ErdoÄ?an’s
personal invitation to show up at his party congress, which signaled a
further strain on relations with Baghdad.

Turkey could have eventually ended in the same spot whether it tried a
different trajectory with regard to Syria and Iraq. But that is not a
point the voters and AK Party supporters will pay any attention to as
public perception is shaped by the general outlook of relations, not
by diplomatic details. He kept Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu, the
architect of this new foreign policy, in party management in 2009, but
whether he will do the same again during the party congress on Sunday
will provide a hint about the orientation of Turkish foreign policy as
well as DavutoÄ?lu’s future career.

I’m sure he will again use Israel as a punching bag as he loves to
lash out at the Jewish state often for the occupation of the Palestine
territories and harsh military policies disturbing the daily lives of
the Palestinian people. In a 2009 speech, he devoted much time to
discussing the Gaza offensive, in which the Israeli Defense Forces
(IDF) allegedly committed war crimes such as using prohibited weapons
including phosphorus bombs and indiscriminately killing civilians in
combat zones in the December 2008-January 2009 period. This time he is
expected to dwell on the flotilla incident during which eight Turkish
citizens and one Turkish-American were killed by an Israeli raid on a
humanitarian ship in international waters en route to Gaza. He will
reiterate Turkey’s demands for an apology and compensation over the
killings and ask that the Gaza embargo be lifted. Given the fact that
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal will be present among the audience,
ErdoÄ?an will try to raise Turkish concerns over domestic woes in
Palestine, specifically the reconciliation issues between Hamas and
Fatah.

As the fury over the anti-Islam movie produced by an extreme
anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the US continues to stir
protests across the Muslim world, ErdoÄ?an will seize the opportunity
to talk about rising Islamophobia in the West. He will talk about the
necessity of introducing an international mechanism that would protect
sacred values from insult, while condemning the violence associated
with the protests that claimed the lives of more than 50 people
including the US ambassador to Libya. He will say freedom of speech
should not be abused for the purposes of legitimizing hate speech and
using it to insult the sacred values of others.

In the 2009 speech, the AK Party chairman dwelled on the government’s
intensified efforts to resolve problems facing Turkish expatriates in
foreign countries’ especially in Europe, while addressing issues such
as problems faced by Turkish citizens in visa applications. The
problems Turks face in EU member states especially in Germany where
some 3 million Turks live continue to be exacerbated however. The
Cologne court order banning ritual circumcisions, practiced by Jews
and Muslims, has practically turned into a nationwide ban as doctors
across the country have refused to carry out operations due to fear of
legal action. As if that is not enough, a poster campaign by the
German Interior Ministry against young Muslims who the ministry
claimed might be Islamist radicals or terrorists due to behavioral
disorders created a backlash among Muslims in Germany.

The xenophobic and Islamophobic tendencies across Europe are on the
rise and the Turkish government feels helpless in making a positive
impact on the lives of Turks and Muslims in this old continent.
ErdoÄ?an will raise these issues in his speech on Sunday, but how
effective he will be in getting foreign governments to tackle these
issues remains a source of concern for Turkish people. The AK Party
government’s promise of making international travel easy for Turkish
citizens is not going according to plan because the visa facilitation
talks with the EU for an eventual waiver agreement are not expected to
bear fruit for at least three years.

How he resumes the EU membership process, which has virtually been
halted with no new negotiations chapter having been opened in the last
two years, will tell us what the extent of involvement by the new
party administration will be in respect to EU relations. In a 2009
speech, he made it clear that Turkey would stick to the EU path
despite difficulties, and would continue to adopt reforms to raise
Turkey’s standards. His criticism for the EU was limited to the extent
that Turkey faced some injustices at the hands of some European
countries acting on populist politics. I expect he will come out
strongly against the EU this time, bashing Brussels for the lack of
progress on membership talks.

Unlike his previous speech in which he touted the normalization of
Turkey’s relations with Armenia as a successful step for the
government, I do not think ErdoÄ?an will amplify this issue in his
speech. When he made his speech on Oct.3, 2009, he knew the government
would be signing the Zurich protocols a week later on Oct.10, which
would have opened the common border that was closed by Turkey in 1993
in solidarity with Azerbaijan after Armenian armed forces occupied 20
percent of Azerbaijan in 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Since the protocols did not make any reference to the resolution of
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijan reacted strongly against
Turkey which led to the country’s shelving of the protocols. It is now
a dead issue in Turkey.

I think he will talk at length on the significance of Turkish-Egyptian
cooperation in the Middle East while hailing the presence of Egypt’s
President Mohammed Morsi in the AK Party congress. The visit
reinforces the impression that Turkey’s AK Party government will
cultivate much better ties with an Egypt ruled by the former leader of
the Muslim Brotherhood. The photo-op with ErdoÄ?an standing next to
Morsi is also a significant warning to Iran that two major powers in
the region are very much worried about Iranian encroachment against
the Sunni sphere of influence in the Middle East. Both ErdoÄ?an and
Morsi have adopted a similar position on Syria and want Assad to
depart from power as soon as possible.

I’m sure he will briefly mention the Afghanistan issue with a
reference to Turkey’s mediation efforts between Pakistan and
Afghanistan as well as Cyprus, Caucasus, the Balkans, nuclear
disarmament, poverty, global climate change, food shortages and other
global matters. But Syria will take up a considerable part of the
speech.

In his last address, he borrowed from Martin Luther King Jr.’s major
speech `I Have a Dream,’ saying, `We have a dream and a story to
tell,’ to the world. But judging from what’s happening in the region,
the AK Party’s story is getting worse and the dream of a zero problems
with neighbors policy is in tatters.