STOP THE BOMB Press Release: Hamburg - Center of German-Iranian Networking

 

STOP THE BOMB, November 22nd, 2010 (last update: February 13, 2011)

A protest rally took place today in front of the Marriott Courtyard Airport Hotel in Hamburg, organized by the STOP THE BOMB Campaign and other groups. STOP THE BOMB protested against the "Iran Business Forum", an event to promote German-Iranian trade. The "Iran Business Forum" was organized by the IPC Company in cooperation with the Iranian Embassy in Germany. This event was an affront against the democratic Iranian opposition and the international efforts to sanction the Iranian regime.
 
The event was attended by about 100 people. With this event, the city of Hamburg again proved to be the centre of German support for the Iranian regime. The German Iranian Chamber of Commerce is also located in the city. This institute continuously offers seminars for companies which want to expand their business in Iran. The „Islamic Centre of Hamburg“ is an instrument of the Iranian state, according to the 2008 report of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Hamburg is also domicile of the European-Iranian Bank of Commerce (EIH), a bank which is on the sanctions list of the US Treasury, because it is involved in financing Iran's nuclear program. The EIH Bank is financing many European business transactions because other banks withdrew from Iran. Hamburg therefore is leading in financing German and European business with Iran.

The Iranian regime is working on expanding its influence in the city. The "Alliance of Iranian Entrepreneurs in Hamburg"(BIU) under the leadership of Kourosh Pourkian is busy with planning a new "Iran-House" in Hamburg. Pourkian also held a speech at the "Iran Business Forum" at the Marriott hotel today. Pourkian is vice chairman of the “Hafis-Foundation”. Reinhard Stuth, the current Senator for Culture in Hamburg, was the chairperson of this foundation until September 2010.

STOP THE BOMB-Speaker Jonathan Weckerle says: "Alireza Beyghi, who spoke at the "Iran Business Forum" is the governor of the Iranian province East Azerbaijan. He is responsible for the imminent execution of Sakineh Ashtiani, and the imprisonment of two German journalists who are charged with „espionage", because they wanted to conduct an interview with Sakineh's son. The Prosecutor General of the Iranian province East Azerbaijan just announced that Sakineh's case is moving through the legal stages in a Tehran court and, if the sentence is ratified, she will be executed by stoning. The German-Iranian Business Forum demonstrates: Contrary to the situation in the US, the hangmen of the Iranian regime are not added to terror lists and excluded from entering Germany, but they can move freely and do business as usual."

Because the Marriott Courtyard Hotel group did not cancel the event in spite of information and protest letters, but decided to host criminals who committed crimes against humanity in Iran and lobbyists of the Islamic dictatorship, the hotel chain will be added to UANI's list of the companies which support the Iranian regime.

 

Propaganda event for the Iranian regime at the Marriott Courtyard Hamburg Aiport Hotel

STOP THE BOMB protests against an event to promote German-Iranian trade in the Courtyard Hamburg Airport Hotel (Marriott), which is scheduled for Monday, November 22, 2010, 9.30 a.m.. Address: Flughafenstraße 47, 22415 Hamburg.

More information on our German page. 

Nils Drescher: n.drescher(at)airporthh(dot)com

Ravindra K. Ahuja: sales(at)airporthh(dot)com, direktion(at)airporthh(dot)com

Marriott Courtyard Hamburg Airport Hotel
Flughafenstraße 47
22415 Hamburg
http://www.marriott.de/hotels/travel/hamcy-courtyard-hamburg-airport/

Open letter to the Courtyard Hamburg Airport Hotel

Do not host the Iranian Ambassador!

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mr. Drescher,
Mr. Ahuja,

The STOP THE BOMB campaign has information that a meeting to promote German-Iranian trade will take place at your hotel next Monday, November 22. The Iranian Ambassador Ali Reza Sheikh Attar will be present.

This event is another attempt to promote the expansion of German-Iranian trade and to find ways to undermine international sanctions against Iran.

If this event takes place, your hotel will support promotion of trade with a regime that brutally suppresses its own people, supports global terror, denies the Holocaust and threatens Israel with annihilation. Events like this weaken international pressure on the Iranian regime in a dangerous way.

The Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Reza Sheikh Attar, a confidant of Ahmadinejad, a member of the Revolutionary Guards and long-time regime official, will held the opening speech at the event. Iranians remember the crimes of Sheikh Attar in horror. Attar was the governor in the Kurdish areas from 1980 till 1985. The Revolutionary Guards are listed in the U.S. as a terrorist supporting organization.

By accommodating Sheikh Attar and the Iranian Embassy, the Marriott Hotel Hamburg is rejecting the international consensus and turning a blind eye to the regime's flagrant violations of human rights and its commitment to illegally develop nuclear weapons.

We are asking you to send a clear message by refusing to host this event and by declining Iran's business worldwide.

Thank you for your interest in this important matter.

Sincerely,

STOP THE BOMB

Press statement

STOP THE BOMB, 20. November 2010

International Protests against Iranian Propaganda Event at the Marriott Courtyard Airport Hotel in Hamburg / German MP Elke Hoff promotes expansion of German-Iranian Cooperation in Iran

An event to promote German business in Iran with the title "Iran Business Forum – Possibilities to invest in Iran's North-Western provinces" will take place on Monday, November 22, on the premises of the Marriott Courtyard Hotel in Hamburg. One of the invited speakers is Alireza Beyghi, governor of the province Eastern Azerbaijan. This is the province where Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is threatened with execution and in which two German journalists are detained, charged with „espionage“, because they wanted to conduct an interview with Sakineh's son.[1]

The event, officially held by the IPC GmH, is organized in cooperation with the Iranian Embassy, according to a telephone conversation with Nils Drescher, manager of the hotel in Hamburg.[2] According to the schedule of the event, the Iranian Ambassador, Ali Reza Sheikh Attar will be the first speaker. Sheikh Attar, member of the revolutionary guards, which are on the terror list in the United States, is responsible for the assassination of hundreds of members of the opposition in Iran, and also for the persecution of Iranians in German exile.[3]

The coalition STOP THE BOMB will hold a protest rally in front of the Marriott Hotel in Hamburg on Monday, November 22.[4]

Elke Hoff, member of the Bundestag for the FDP (Liberal Democrats) and also board member of the Near and Middle East Association (NUMOV), which lobbies against sanctions and promotes trade with Iran, is in Iran today and promotes the expansion of German-Iranian cooperation in different fields, including the official and parliamentary level. [5]

The destiny of the two arrested German journalists, whose names are still not known in the public, shows what Germany gets for its close relations with the Iranian regime. Hardly one journalist in Germany dares to report on the case of the arrested journalists.[6] Meanwhile, the Iranian regime is conducting a campaign against Mina Ahadi, who managed to draw the international attention to the case of Sakineh with a campaign against stoning. Mina Ahadi got several death threats. A public event with Mina Ahadi as a speaker in Berlin that was scheduled for tonight had to be cancelled due to security reasons after the German police refused to provide protection for the event.

Jonathan Weckerle, spokesperson of STOP THE BOMB, comments: „Right now the Iranian regime has taken the offensive and tries to blackmail the German government with the imprisoned journalists. This is also a result of the ongoing events promoting trade with Iran and of the uncritical journeys to Iran by German members of the parliament, by which the German side undermines the sanctions and signals weakness and indetermination. STOP THE BOMB demands that events promoting trade with Iran and trips to Iran like the one of the liberal democrat’s member of parliament Elke Hoff are stopped immediately.”

The US organization UANI – United Against A Nuclear Iran has also protested against the event in Hamburg. In a letter to J.W. Marriott, head of the Marriott chain, Mark D. Wallace, president of UANI and former UN ambassador for the USA, writes:

"By providing accommodations for the Iranian Ambassador at an event singularly conceived for the purposes of promoting increased trade between Germany and Iran, the Marriot is facilitating the Iranian regime's ability to counter the effects of multilateral sanctions intended to isolate an illegitimate dictatorship that engages in conduct that threatens international peace and security, and is an egregious human rights violator." [7]