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Turkey's cozy business with Iran

Center for Security Policy | Jun 08, 2010
By Christopher Holton

It becomes more apparent all the time that Turkey is a foe in the War for the Free World, between the forces of freedom and liberty and the forces of Shariah law and Jihad.

Actually, if you were to ask most Greeks they would have told you years ago that the Turks were an enemy not to be trusted, especially since Turkey invaded the island of Cyprus in the mid-1970s. But Turkey's recent activities drive the point home.

For many people, the first clue that Turkey was no longer a true ally of the U.S. and the rest of NATO (of which Turkey is a member) came back in 2003 when the Turkish parliament refused to grant the coalition to overthrow Saddam Hussein permission to launch a northern front from its territory into Iraq.

As a result of Turkey's disloyalty, the advanced 4th Mechanized Infantry Division had to sail around the Arabian peninsula to Kuwait to join the fight. As a direct result of Turkey's actions, American GIs lost their lives. Turkey's actions deprived the coalition with a mechanized thrust into the Sunni Triangle area of Iraq-a powerful thrust that could have done much to inhibit the development of the insurgency there.

More recently, Turkey betrayed another former ally, Israel, by sanctioning a blockade running flotilla toward Israeli waters, precipitating a violent incident in which nine Turks lost their lives. As part of the fallout from this episode it has been revealed that the Turkish Islamic charity IHH is involved in supporting the terrorist organization HAMAS.  This should not actually come as much of a surprise since IHH is part of Jihadist terrorist Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi's "Union of Good." The "Union of Good" is an umbrella group of 53 Islamic charities based out of Saudi Arabia most noted for having been designated a terrorist entity by the U.S. Treasury Department.

But perhaps the most startling evidence that Turkey is an enemy and not an ally is the corporate life support that it gives the Ayatollahs in Iran.

Many nations allow their corporate citizens to conduct business in and with the Islamic Republic of Iran, but one Turkish company in particular has provided an array of services that has benefited Iran's military posture and allowed the Iranians to pose a clear and present danger to the Free World.

STFA Group is a Turkish engineering and construction conglomerate that builds everything from port facilities and energy industry infrastructure, to naval vessels and high-tech electronics. STFA has completed projects in Iran for government entities-projects that could enable Iran to threaten the flow of oil in the Persian Gulf and enrich itself in meantime.

 

Exhibit A: STFA did extensive infrastructure work on three ports for the Iranian Ministry of Roads and Transportation and the Iran Ports and Shipping Organization:

1. Jask. At the port of Jask near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, STFA constructed a breakwater and quay which provide shelter for an Iranian naval base. (Click the images below to englarge.)

2. Queshm. The port of Queshm on the island of the same name sits on one of the flanks of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a major portion of the world's oil must flow. STFA built a breakwater and quay for the port, which the Iranians use as a base for Silkworm anti-ship missiles:

Iran has deployed Chinese HY-2 "Silkworm" anti-ship missiles along the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf, on Abu Musa island, on Qeshm Island and on Sirri Island. In March 1995 US Secretary of Defense William Perry denied speculation on the possible existence of Iranian chemical weapons on the islands.

Qeshm Island is the largest island in the Strait of Hormuz and in the Persian Gulf. With an area of 1445 km2, a circumference of approximately 362 km, and a length of 122 km, the northern coast of the island is covered with mangrove forests. Qeshm island is located along the Iranian mainland, at one point only about 1.8 km distant from the mainland, and Qeshm City is about 22 km from Bandar Abbas.

3. Bandar Lengeh. STFA also constructed breakwaters and quays near the harbor of Bandar Lengeh just west of the Strait of Hormuz.

 

Exhibit B: STFA constructed piling works for a jetty on the eastern side of Kharg Island, Iran's number one oil and gas terminal and a major naval base.

(Click the image below to englarge.)

 

In these strategic projects, Turkey's STFA is partnering with the Iranian regime that is: 

(i) killing US GIs in Iraq and Afghanistan;

(ii) sponsoring Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and HAMAS, the three worst Jihadist terrorist organizations in the world;

(iii) building intercontinental ballistic missiles to strike around the globe and;

(iv) working to build nuclear weapons in violation of international agreements.

It is clear that Turkey has chosen sides in the war-- and it's not ours.

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Mrs. Menges, the co-founder of the Menges Hemispheric Security Project, is in charge of the weekly edition of CSP's Americas Report.  Fluent in Spanish, she holds a degree in International Relations from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has studied at the University of the Americas in Mexico City.  Her postgraduate degree has been earned from the University of Maryland.  She has testified in Congress and submitted CSP's statement regarding US-Colombian relations to the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.