“Light House” Money Said to Have Financed Political Party in Turkey

Ali Kılıç, member of the central executive board of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) said in a press conference at the party headquarters on Wednesday (13 May) that documents sent to the prosecution by the German Ministry of Finance showed that around 900 million Euros had been donated to the "Light House" (Deniz Feneri) Association in the last decade.

The "Light House" Association is active in Germany and in Turkey, but the organisations claim they are separate. They collect donations for charity.

In Germany, three people were convicted of diverting funds from the organisation, and the German prosecution has claimed that the corruption was organised from Turkey.

Kılıç now says that a political party in Turkey had been financed with this money.

Questions regarding the corruption allegations

He asked the following questions:

*Has the Light House Association (LHA) donated money to the Muslim Brothers Organisation?

*Has the file on the supermarket chain Yimpaş been merged with that on the LHA?

*Has the German version of the TV channel Kanal 7 been financed by the LHA?

*Did Zekeriya Karaman (president of the managing board of Kanal 7) invite German Chief Superintendent Officer Alexander   Böhm to come to Turkey secretly?

*Following the German operation against the LHA, did Karaman use an email address with the code name Nuri Yılmaz?

*Who does the Nostalji75 email address belong to?

*Was the LHA stamp used for visa applications made in the name of Kanal 7? 

*Did Zekeriya Karaman make a contract with Mehmet Gürhan (the convicted former director of the German LHA) to pay him 9,000 Euros a month in consulting fees? If yes, on which account was this money deposited and were taxes paid?

*Seeing as the German LHA has no office or personnel in Turkey, did the signatures of receipt which were faked and signed by the same person organised by LHA managers in Turkey? Was one of the institutions making out invoices Anadolu Tekstil, owned by the husband of Karaman's wife's sister?

*Did the Turkish and German LHA, which use the same name and logo, ever file a complaint against each other concerning the right to use the name?

*Does Zahit Akman, president of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), who has said "there is no investigation against me" not think of resigning after the German prosecution has asked Turkey to take his finger prints and raid his office?

*Did the Aytaç firm take money from the LHA to sacrifice animals? If yes, how much, and how many animals were slaugthered in return?

In a speech on Tuesday, 12 May, CHP leader Deniz Baykal had also cited the same documents, and said that the two LHAs from Germany and Turkey had collaborated, that the Yimpaş and LHA files had been merged in Germany, and that Kanal 7 had been financed with money from the German LHA.

He had said, "Yimpaş, Kombasan, Kanal 7 and the LA are all connected."

He added that the German legal institutions had previously asked for statements to be taken from 16 people, including Akman, and that they had stated that 12 companies in Turey were involved in the donation scandal.

Germany believes organisation was run from Turkey

Germany has asked to be allowed to send three people to carry out an investigation in Turkey. The Ministry of Justice has said that it received the request, written on 20 January, on 24 April, and that it had forwarded it to the prosecution in Ankara. (TK/AG)