The Palmali Group of Companies, which has several subsidiaries based in Malta, as well as the Oil Transportation and Shipping Services – all of which are owned by Azerbaijani billionaire Mubariz Mansimov – has vehemently denied associations with a company owned by the son of the Turkish president, the BMZ Group, as well as any association with allegations of oil smuggling by the Islamic State.
In reply to an article carried by this newspaper on 13 December (Maltese ships owned by Turkish president’s son being implicated in ISIS oil trade), the legal representation of Palmali and OTSS insists that the ships in question, since they were taken over by Palmali from BMZ on a bareboat charter basis, have been used only to transport vegetables oils and chemicals – and not oil allegedly being smuggled by the Islamic State.
The companies also say that they carry out regular full due diligence on BMZ Group Denizcilik ve insaatSanayi A.S., and on its business activities.
Russia’s allegations of Turkish involvement in ISIS’ oil trade have focused primarily on the Turkish president’s son, Bilal Erdogan. The 34-year-old is one of three equal partners in the BMZ group, a major Turkish oil and marine shipping company, which both the Russian and Syrian governments have accused of purchasing oil from ISIS.
Russian and Syrian officials and media reports from those countries suggest that Bilal Erdogan has been directly involved in the oil trade with ISIS, and that Turkey downed a Russian jet on 24 November specifically to protect his oil smuggling business. Others have implicated the Malta-based companies and ships, much to Palmali’s chagrin.
The company also insists that all the vessels in question are tracked by Transport Malta, since they fly the Maltese flag. Moreover, only one of the five ships in question, the company says, has made one internal voyage within – i.e. originating and ending in Turkey – during which it had carried sunflower seed oil.
The company adds, “None of our client’s vessels are involved in the transportation of illegal products or products covered by sanctions or are otherwise involved in any illegal activity whatsoever.”
The entire reply is as follows:
“The article in question is replete with serious allegations about our clients all of which are manifestly unfounded and unsupported by facts. One would have expected an article in a self-respecting weekly newspaper to be an exercise in professional fact-determining journalism, not a speculative journey intent on malicious spreading of false news. It is shocking, to say the least, that before putting to print the various items of unsubstantiated rubbish you collected from dubious sources, you did not deign to seek statements from my clients’ representatives in Malta. Such attitude, apart from being highly unprofessional, smacks of ineptitude and malicious intent.
“The facts are as follows:
1 None of the companies forming part of the Palmali Group or otherwise owned or controlled by Mr Mansimov (including Oil Transportation and Shipping Services Co. Ltd and other companies you mentioned in your article) have sold oil tankers to Mr Erdogan or to BMZ Group Denizcilik ve insaatSanayi A.S. whether in the last year or indeed at any time before.
2 None of the companies forming part of the Palmali Group or otherwise owned or controlled by Mr Mansimov (including Oil Transportation and Shipping Services Co. Ltd. and other companies you mentioned in your article) is in any manner an affiliate of BMZ Group Denizcilik ve insaatSanayi A.S.
3 Palmali’s Malta-registered companies are not ‘offshore companies’. The Palmali Group owns offices in Ta’ Xbiex and employs Malta-based personnel.
4 The vessels in question (MT Mecid Aslanov, MT Begin Aslanova, MT Poet Qabil, MT Armada Breeze and MT Armada Fair) were bareboat chartered by our clients from BMZ Group Denizcilik ve insaatSanayi A.S. A full due diligence is regularly carried out by our clients on BMZ Group Denizcilik ve insaatSanayi A.S., and on the latter’s business activities.
5 Since being taken over by my clients on a bareboat charter basis, the mentioned vessels have been mainly employed in the transportation of vegetable oils and chemicals (such as MTBE, fatty acids and PYGAS).
6 Only one of the vessels (the MT Armada Fair) has made one internal voyage originating and ending in Turkey during which voyage she carried crude sunflower seed oil in bulk. None of the vessels have until today been engaged on any other voyages originating in Turkish or Syrian or Iraqi waters.
7 All the movements of the vessels are tracked by Transport Malta.
8 None of our clients’ vessels are involved in the transportation of illegal products or of products covered by sanctions or otherwise involved in any illegal activity whatsoever.”
Editorial note: This newspaper in its reportage of the matter has made it perfectly clear that it is not making any such allegations itself but is, rather, reporting the various allegations that are widely available in the Turkish and Russian press, which are readily available online. As this newspaper stated in the article in question: “Regional politics, propaganda and the Russia-Turkey sabre-rattling aside, the crux of the matter as far as Malta is concerned is that the fleet of five tankers owned by Erdogan’s son, which are being linked to the illegal trade, are all registered in Malta. Should the accusations continue to grow in this respect, Transport Malta would eventually be called in to investigate since the ships fly the Maltese maritime flag.”