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IRAQ STOPS REGISTERING TURKISH FIRMS OVER REFUSAL TO SEND BACK FUGITIVE VP
PanARMENIAN.Net
September 13, 2012 - 20:54 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Iraq's Trade Ministry has stopped registering Turkish
companies, it said on Thursday, September 13 as the neighbors sparred
over Ankara's refusal to send back a fugitive Iraqi vice president
who was sentenced to death in absentia, Reuters said.
The ministry insisted the move was made for "regulatory and statistics"
purposes, but Turkish businesses in Baghdad were worried the decision
was taken because of the dispute between the two capitals and a
government source told Reuters it was political.
Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi can remain in Turkey as long as he
needs to, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. An Iraqi court
sentenced Hashemi to death by hanging on Sunday after being convicted
of running death squads, a charge he says was politically motivated.
Iraq is Turkey's second biggest export market after Germany, with
trade volume reaching nearly $12 billion in 2011, Turkey's economy
minister said during a visit to northern Iraq early this year.
But Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Turkey's Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan have publicly traded insults several times this year
as relations have soured.
Kadhim Mohammed, an advisor in the ministry of trade, said the
decision to stop registering companies - which will prevent any new
Turkish firms opening in Iraq, but should not affect existing ones -
had "nothing to do with politics".
"There are some administrative and regularity problems," Mohammed
told Reuters. "It is a mere business thing
He said the measure was ordered by the trade minister on Wednesday
and did not know how long it would last.
A government official who works on trade issues, however, told Reuters
the move was motivated by politics.
"The decision was taken for political reasons since Hashemi is there
and also due to the last visit of the Turkish foreign minister to
Kirkuk," he said.
Last month, Iraq said Turkey had violated its constitution by sending
its foreign minister without permission to visit Kirkuk, a city at
the heart of a dispute between Baghdad and the country's autonomous
Kurdistan region.
The Turkish embassy in Baghdad told Reuters it had been informed that a
temporary freeze would be applied to all foreign licensing eventually,
but that those from Turkey were being covered first because Turkey
is Iraq's biggest trading partner.
According to the trade ministry, 1,529 foreign companies are registered
in Iraq, up from 109 before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
From: Baghdasarian
PanARMENIAN.Net
September 13, 2012 - 20:54 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Iraq's Trade Ministry has stopped registering Turkish
companies, it said on Thursday, September 13 as the neighbors sparred
over Ankara's refusal to send back a fugitive Iraqi vice president
who was sentenced to death in absentia, Reuters said.
The ministry insisted the move was made for "regulatory and statistics"
purposes, but Turkish businesses in Baghdad were worried the decision
was taken because of the dispute between the two capitals and a
government source told Reuters it was political.
Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi can remain in Turkey as long as he
needs to, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. An Iraqi court
sentenced Hashemi to death by hanging on Sunday after being convicted
of running death squads, a charge he says was politically motivated.
Iraq is Turkey's second biggest export market after Germany, with
trade volume reaching nearly $12 billion in 2011, Turkey's economy
minister said during a visit to northern Iraq early this year.
But Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Turkey's Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan have publicly traded insults several times this year
as relations have soured.
Kadhim Mohammed, an advisor in the ministry of trade, said the
decision to stop registering companies - which will prevent any new
Turkish firms opening in Iraq, but should not affect existing ones -
had "nothing to do with politics".
"There are some administrative and regularity problems," Mohammed
told Reuters. "It is a mere business thing
He said the measure was ordered by the trade minister on Wednesday
and did not know how long it would last.
A government official who works on trade issues, however, told Reuters
the move was motivated by politics.
"The decision was taken for political reasons since Hashemi is there
and also due to the last visit of the Turkish foreign minister to
Kirkuk," he said.
Last month, Iraq said Turkey had violated its constitution by sending
its foreign minister without permission to visit Kirkuk, a city at
the heart of a dispute between Baghdad and the country's autonomous
Kurdistan region.
The Turkish embassy in Baghdad told Reuters it had been informed that a
temporary freeze would be applied to all foreign licensing eventually,
but that those from Turkey were being covered first because Turkey
is Iraq's biggest trading partner.
According to the trade ministry, 1,529 foreign companies are registered
in Iraq, up from 109 before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
From: Baghdasarian