Erdogan says businessmen moving assets abroad are ‘traitors’

Monitoring Desk

ANKARA:  Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday businessmen who attempted to move assets abroad were “traitors”, and called on his cabinet to block any such moves.

“I am seeing signals, news that some businessmen are trying to move their assets abroad, and I call on firstly my cabinet from here to never allow this exit for any of them because these people are traitors,” Erdogan said.

Speaking to members of his ruling AK Party in the eastern province of Mus, Erdogan did not say to whom he was referring, nor did he single out a single business, person or country of destination.

“We cannot take kindly to those who earn in this country and then try to take those earnings abroad,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkey would not succumb to “blackmail” by the United States in the trial of a Turkish bank executive being charged with evading U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Erdogan said Turkey’s dealings were in line with the decisions of the United Nations, adding that they were not against Ankara’s alliance with Washington.

“What have we done, for example? We bought natural gas from a country we have an agreement with so our citizens wouldn’t be cold in the winter. Like other countries, only the UN’s decisions bind us, and Turkey followed them to the dot,” he added.

“This case is nothing more than the 17-25 December plot being carried across the ocean. Excuse us, but we will not succumb to this blackmail,” Erdogan said, referring to 2013 leaks about alleged government corruption which were blamed on his opponents.

“Do you believe that YPG/PYD in Syria is working for the benefit and future of our Kurdish brothers?” Erdogan asked. “Never. This is not the case.”

He said he always spoke out against the abuse of Kurdish people’s rights by Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

“I asked him, back in the days when we were on good terms, why they did not give them [Kurds] identity cards or passports. But Assad never cared about them.”

Erdogan said that Daesh in Syria equaled “YPG/PYD”.

“Whoever established Daesh and armed them, and wreaked carnage in the country [Syria], is now arming and controlling and guiding YPG/PYD,” he said, in an indirect reference to the U.S.

For the Syrian people, their “only friend” is Turkey, he added.

Last Tuesday, Turkey’s National Security Council termed the PKK/PYD terror group’s ethnic cleansing in Syria “unacceptable”.

The council met under the leadership of Erdogan in capital Ankara.

“PKK/PYD/YPG terrorist organization’s efforts to carry out a covert ethnic cleansing by changing the demographic structure of Syria is against international law and human rights, and, therefore, it is unacceptable,” said a statement released after the meeting.

Turkey will continue to take every necessary measure at the Turkey-Syria border area to ensure its own security, the council said.

The PKK/PYD is the Syrian branch of the PKK terrorist network, which has waged war against Turkey for more than 30 years. Turkey considers PKK, PYD, and YPG all one and the same.