BUSINESS LEADER DENIES REPORTS OF PRESSURE ON TURKISH COMPANIES

Today’s Zaman
Oct 20 2009
Turkey

A senior official of the main Turkish business group in Azerbaijan
has denied media reports that Turkish companies are facing unjust tax
inspections amid political tensions over a recent Turkish-Armenian
rapprochement.

Yasin Görul, the secretary-general of the International Society of
Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen (TUSÄ°AB), said the reports
that appeared in the Azerbaijani media were "exaggerated."

Azerbaijani newspapers Yeni Musavat and Azadlıg reported this week
that Azerbaijani authorities have started tax inspections over the
past transactions of Turkish businesses operating in Azerbaijan,
reportedly in an act of reprisal by the Azerbaijani government over
the signing of two protocols on diplomatic relations between Turkey
and Armenia, which occupied Azerbaijani territory in a war over
Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s. They claimed that Azerbaijani
President Ä°lham Aliyev ordered the Ministry of Finance to take a
strict line in investigating Turkish companies in Azerbaijan in case
of any irregularities in their operation and tax payments.

"We have not received any such information. Every six months, however,
tax inspectors conduct routine investigations of which this is a part.

Nevertheless, some circles always trying to use this situation to
create tension," Görul told Today’s Zaman.

Officials at the Baku office of the state Turkish Cooperation and
Development Agency (TÄ°KA) also told Today’s Zaman that they have
not received any information about the reported tax inspections.

But another Turkish businessman, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
confirmed the reports, saying that tax inspectors have informed his
companies that they will come for an inspection in the near future.