Tag Archives: Zahra Kazemi

03Feb/14

An Iranian Lesson for Turkey

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing one of the most serious challenges yet to his undisputed 11-year dominance. Recent charges of money laundering, gold smuggling and bribery have tarnished Erdogan’s carefully crafted image.

Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which means “white” or “pure” in Turkish, has also come under scrutiny. The root of Erdogan’s problems and his recent scandals lie not in Turkey but with its arch-nemesis, Iran.

Corruption is nothing new in Iran.

But the magnitude and institutionalization of corruption in Iran’s Islamic regime are unprecedented. So is the amount of money involved in the recent Iranian-Turkish affair. Two Iranian businessmen, Reza Zarrab and Babak Zanjani (both now arrested), allegedly laundered close to $100 billion of Iranian oil money. Continue reading