WikiLeaks published on Monday a searchable archive of nearly 58,000 emails from the private email account of Berat Albayrak - Turkey's incumbent energy minister and son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – revealing the influence Albayrak has in Turkey and his correspondence regarding Powertrans, a company implicated in oil imports from ISIS-controlled oil fields.
The emails encompass 16 years between April 2000 and September 23, 2016. A search by the 'Powertrans' keyword in the published WikiLeaks emails returns 32 results, including emails sent to Albayrak regarding personnel and salary issues at Powertrans.
Turkey banned oil transportation by road or railway in or out of the country in November 2011, but included a provision in the same bill that it could revoke the ban in specific cases, such as meeting the needs of the military. The Turkish government later gave exclusive privilege to Powertrans for transit of oil, WikiLeaks says.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by linkdude64 on Wednesday December 07 2016, @05:56PM
Turkey just attacked Syria to "liberate their people from Assad," coincidentally sharing a common enemy with ISIS.
Saudi Arabia is also a friend of ISIS, Wikileaks reveals, and coincidentally, an enemy of Russia.
Good thing the warmongering, region-destabilizing, and weapons-dealing Presidential candidate didn't win this year.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @06:06PM
Get back to me in a year or two when all of our warmongering, region-destabilizing, and weapons-dealing in the middle east has come to an end. Oh wait, it won't happen because it makes a lot of people VERY fucking rich.
If for no other reason we should be sinking billions into renewable energy development just to get the hell out of that shitfest. Lets play nice with South America and work on building a better world so that we don't get out own "middle americas" shitfest of our own.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Wednesday December 07 2016, @06:32PM
That's pretty much meaningless. Just about everyone is an enemy of ISIS in Syria so, unless you actually side with ISIS directly, then any allies you might have are going to have a common enemy in ISIS, regardless of whether they are supporting Assad's regime, fighting against it, or just trying to prevent the fighting from spilling over into their part of the country.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 4, Informative) by bob_super on Wednesday December 07 2016, @08:26PM
> Just about everyone is an enemy of ISIS in Syria
Not quite. The Turkish government was happy to help ISIS fight the Kurds (oil, porous border for fighters), to avoid a Kurdish state across the border. Before ISIS, they were fine with Assad for the same exact reason.
Whoever "wins" the Syrian war will get he support of Turkey if they prevent Kurdish independence. Similarly, anyone about to win without taking position against Kurdish independence had better be ready for some incidents with the Northern neighbor.
Turkey isn't a one-issue player in Syria, but their main objective isn't exactly a secret.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by zocalo on Thursday December 08 2016, @12:17AM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by tfried on Wednesday December 07 2016, @08:50PM
Hm, so I thought the new plan was to hit on Iran, instead (friend of Assad, friend of Russia, enemy of ISIS, enemy of Saudi Arabia)? Not that this will be any worse than the current mess, I'm just having difficulty to grasp how it will lead to stabilization of the region.
On the upside, pretty much the entire Middle-East has learnt to take America seriously but not by their word, long ago. So I guess they'll cope [soylentnews.org] just fine...