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 Görül, the secretary-general of the International Society of Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen (TÜSİAB), 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 Ilham 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,” Görül told Today’s Zaman.
Officials at the Baku office of the state Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA) 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.
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