CEP Inquiry Preceded Action Against Firm With Hamas-Run Subsidiaries





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U.S. Treasury Designates Turkish Firm For Aiding Hamas

CEP Inquiry Preceded Action Against Firm With Hamas-Run Subsidiaries

 

(New York, N.Y.) — Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department designated
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numerousHamas <[link removed]> finance
officials, financial facilitators, and companies including Turkey’sTrend
Gayrimenkul Yatirim Ortakligi A.S. <[link removed]> (Trend GYO)
for providing financial aid to the U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist
Organization (FTO). Prior to the Treasury’s actions, the Counter Extremist
Project (CEP) wrote to Trend GYO on May 16 demanding clarification on its
apparently extensive business ties with Hamas, noting the absence of “any
reference or refutation of these serious claims on the Trend GYO website or
press releases.”

 

Last year, Reuters reported
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that Hamas has investment portfolios “worth hundreds of millions of dollars in
companies across the Middle East.” Most of its nearly $500 million in assets
are managed in Turkey,according
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to Double Cheque, which also reports that Trend GYO has five subsidiaries run
by members of Hamas.

 

Turkey is openly supportive of Hamas and has allowed a Hamas bureau to operate
in Istanbul since 2012. In recent years, Hamas leaders including Ismail Haniyeh
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Turkish leaders who reportedly permitted Hamas military training exercises in
the country. Turkey has also invested billions of dollars in Gaza, freeing
Hamas leaders to spend a greater proportion of their resources smuggling goods
and weapons to attack Israelis through its sophisticated network of underground
tunnels and a rocket industry built with Iranian support. In December 2021,
Israel’s Shin Bet security agency broke up a Hamas cell of more than 50
operatives allegedly directed from Turkey.

 

Treasury also designated Turkey-based Jordanian national Hisham Younis Yahia
Qafisheh, the vice chair of Trend GYO’s board who aided the transfer of funds
on behalf of various companies linked to Hamas’s investment portfolio.

 

Through its HARBORS Campaign
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Turkey’s support for and cooperation with extremist groups including Hamas, the
Muslim Brotherhood, Haqqani Network, and the Taliban, including by providing
refuge within its borders to senior leaders of the aforementioned groups.

 

To read CEP’s resource Hamas, please click here
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To read CEP’s resource HARBORS Campaign: Turkey, please click here
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To read CEP’s resource Turkey’s Lax Approach to Countering Terrorism, please
clickhere
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.

 

To read CEP’s resource Turkey: Extremism and Terrorism, please click here
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