George Soros' Open Society Foundation Set to End Operations in Turkey

Kicked out of Hungary, and now Turkey

- is sanity returning to parts of the world?

Liberal billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations NGO will close up shop in Turkey, saying “groundless claims and speculation” have hindered its work.

The organization announced the news on Monday, days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Soros of stoking protests to divide the country, referring to the elderly liberal financier as that “famous Hungarian Jew Soros.”

Erdogan accused Soros of controlling Turkish opposition figure Osman Kavala, himself accused of financing and organizing anti-government demonstrations in 2013, and being linked to a failed coup attempt in 2016. Kavala is an advisory board member of OSF.

Over a dozen people linked to Kavala were arrested last week, as Erdogan’s crackdown on anyone suspected of involvement with the coup continues.

In a statement released Monday, an Open Society Foundations spokesman refuted Erdogan’s claims. The organization described Erdogan’s apparent attempts to link Soros with protests in 2013 as “not new and untrue,” and said that Erdogan’s “groundless claims and speculation” have “made it impossible” to continue its activities.

A prominent backer of liberal causes worldwide, Soros’ activities have seen him repeatedly draw the ire of nationalists and the right wing. OSF ended its operations in Soros’ native Hungary earlier this year, after Prime Minister Viktor Orban slammed the tycoon for meddling in the nation’s affairs.

After OSF closed its doors in Hungary, the country’s parliament approved the ‘Stop Soros’ law, a piece of legislation introduced by Orban’s Fidesz party that criminalized aid workers and organizations suspected of “enabling illegal immigration.” Liberalizing immigration and border controls has long been one of Soros’ goals, hence the law’s name.

The Open Society Foundations project was started in 1979, with the first non-US foundation opening in Hungary in 1984. The group currently has annual expenditures of over $940 million, operates in over 100 countries across the globe, with 26 national and regional foundations and offices.

George Soros to Close his Budapest Office Amid ‘Political Hostility’

Another shift to starboard for Hungary

George Soros' Open Society Foundations (OSF) will close their office in Budapest and move Eastern European operations to Germany, citing the “political hostility” it faces in Hungary, the Austrian Die Presse newspaper reported.

The office will reportedly shut down by the end of August and then move to Vienna or to Berlin. The report came a week and a half after the Hungarian parliamentary elections, in which the conservative anti-immigrant Fidesz party, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, secured a decisive victory.

The Hungarian-born US billionaire and philanthropist George Soros, who is well-known for promoting the rights of migrants and asylum seekers through his network of NGOs, is commonly seen in Hungary as the arch-nemesis of Orban. The Prime Minister has repeatedly accused the billionaire of tampering with the country’s internal affairs, as well as of conspiring to flood Europe with migrants, predominantly from Muslim countries, in order to demolish European values and purvey a globalist agenda.

Soros, and many other far-left liberals don't seem to understand that Muslims don't go into Christian countries and just blend in very long. Maybe that's his end-game - to destroy Chrisitanity? 

Muslims may be quiet for a few generations, especially if they are few in numbers, but if they come in by the tens or hundreds of thousands, they will soon take over. Their moral values are nothing like Christians, even lapsed, or nominal Christians like most of those in Europe. They proliferate far more quickly than Christians and when they become the majority, as they most certainly will in much of Europe, they will take over and there will either be civil war, or we will dress our granddaughters in hijabs and marry them off at 9. Orban has spared Hungary of that fate.

Shortly before the elections, Fidesz introduced an anti-NGO bill, dubbed the ‘Stop Soros Act.’ The proposed legislation targets NGOs that “organize illegal immigration” and advocate for the rights of migrants through other means. The bill, if adopted, will oblige NGOs to provide government with detailed accounts of their activities and will impose a 25 percent tax on funds they receive from abroad. The legislation is expected to be voted-on shortly, when parliament reconvenes after the elections.

Amnesty Intl Risks Criminal Probe after Taking Soros' Funds for Pro-Abortion Campaign in Ireland

Soros and left-wing organizations don't seem to have any respect whatsoever for a country's laws. It is one thing to oppose a law, and something else altogether to break another law in order to oppose the first. Yet they claim the high moral ground.

© Amnesty International Ireland / Facebook

Amnesty International Ireland could face criminal charges after an Irish regulatory body found that it broke the law by accepting a donation from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation for an abortion rights campaign.

Ireland’s Standards in Public Office Commission informed the human rights organisation that it had breached Irish law by accepting funds from a foreign donor and may face criminal investigation, Amnesty International Ireland said in a statement.

The organisation says the €137,000 grant received from the Open Society Foundation (OSF) last year was used to support a campaign to ensure abortion laws in Ireland comply with human rights.

Abortion is a 'human right'???? "Life' is a human right; the most basic and fundamental of all human rights! Abortion is the death of a human - the opposite of a human right! What lunacy!

Amnesty has blasted the law as draconian and defiantly stated it would not comply with the order to return the funds.

“Amnesty International will not be complying with the instruction from the SIPOC and will deploy every means at its disposal to challenge this unfair law,” Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland, Colm O’Gorman said.

O’Gorman claimed on Twitter that Irish law was “being weaponized by those opposed to our work.”

The Electoral Act 1997, as amended in 2001, forbids overseas donations of more than €100 to “third party” organisations for “political purposes”. Violation of this law can carry a penalty of up to three years imprisonment.

Earlier this year, it emerged that three organisations including the Abortion Rights Campaign and Amnesty International had received funds from the Open Society Foundation.

The Abortion Rights Campaign were ordered by SIPO to return the funds or face criminal investigation – an order they duly complied with, however, no such order was made against Amnesty International.

The organization said it was using the grant to carry out opinion polling and “research into models of abortion law reform that might bring Ireland into compliance with its international human rights obligations” – an explanation apparently accepted at the time, reported The Irish Times.

O’Gorman says it is unclear why the body reversed its decision, but noted that some groups and media have been framing their campaign to reform Ireland’s abortion law as ‘controversial’ or ‘too political.’ “They have also portrayed foreign funding as somehow sinister,” he said.

If it comes from Soros, it probably is sinister!

Amnesty International is now calling on the Irish government to urgently amend the Electoral Act so that civil society groups are not so “punitively” restricted in their access to funding.

'Punitively'??? Aren't both sides restricted by the same law? How then can it be punitive to one side?

Soros’ Open Society Foundation is the second largest charity in the US and said to be the most influential around the globe. It has been accused of undermining democracy in several countries – a charge denied by the NGO.

And if it is true, it's justified. Many a liberal believes that the end justifies the means, regardless of how illegal or onerous those means.

Is George Soros Pulling the Strings of European Parliament?

Soros and his ‘226 EU friends’ thrust into spotlight by Farage

– so who are they?

Picking up the anti-Soros torch from Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, UK politician Nigel Farage is seeking to investigate fellow EU MEPs who support the controversial vision of the wealthy financier. But are Orban and Farage’s fears valid?

UK politician Nigel Farage, the prominent face of Brexit, is now concerned about Europe’s destiny. Addressing the EU Parliament this week, Farage provided some thoughtful ideas as to the source of the claims that Russia had somehow manipulated the Brexit vote, as well as the Trump election.

“Just last week, the electoral commission, in the UK, launched an investigation to find out whether the ‘Leave’ campaign took offshore money or Russian money,” Farage said.

"This came about as a result of questions asked in the House of Commons by one Ben Bradshaw, somebody linked to an organization called Open Society.”

But Farage, who seems to take great delight in agitating his fellow MPs, was just warming up. He went on to provide yet another example of an EU parliamentarian working on behalf of George Soros, this time against Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, who has accused the financier of seeking to create “a Europe of mixed population.”

“We even had last week Mr. [Guy] Verhofstadt lobbying on behalf of Mr. Soros at the Conference of Presidents in a battle that is going on with Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary,” Farage said, pointing directly at Verhofstadt as he spoke.

“I wonder,” Farage continued, “when we are talking about ‘political collusion,’ I wonder if we are looking in the wrong place.”

Farage described Soros’s influence in Strasbourg and Brussels as “truly extraordinary.” And that influence looks set to increase dramatically now that Soros has donated the bulk of his wealth - $18 billion - into his Open Society pet project, which campaigns for open borders and supranational structures such as the European Union.

$18 bn can buy a whole lot of MEPs.

Farage concluded his short, fiery monologue with a weighty statement: “I fear we could be looking at the biggest level of international, political collusion in history.”

On the surface, there seems to be some legitimacy to Farage’s claim. According to public sources, Open Society European Policy Institute (OSEPI), the EU policy arm of Open Society Foundations, met with members of the European Commission on 44 separate occasions in 2016. And now that the organization has just been energized with $18 billion, it would seem apparent that that influence is set to increase.

Moreover, the Soros organizations published a pamphlet providing details on a list of 226 reliable “friends” who serve in the European Parliament. Farage said he would call on the parliament to set up a special committee to investigate the issue.

Who are Soros’ 226 EU ‘friends’?

In a 177-page pamphlet published by Open Society, entitled “Reliable Allies in the European Parliament (2014-2019),” 226 EU MEPs are listed and labeled according to their political orientation and views.

According to the pamphlet, “The presence of an MEP in this mapping indicates that they are likely to support Open Society’s work. Considering there are 751 members of the European Parliament, “reliable allies” of George Soros hold at least one-third of seats."

So what sort of qualifications does an MEP need to be included among Open Society’s “reliable allies?” A quick preview of the candidate’s description field provides some good indication as to what Soros expects from his allies, including a political philosophy that includes support of the LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or intersex) movement, open borders and an anti-Russia stance.

Among the 226 chosen, there is one Yana Toom, an MEP from Estonia, who comes in for a bit of criticism despite her inclusion. “Refused supporting the European Parliament’s first resolution on the Ukraine-Russia conflict in July 2014, and may be pro-Russia to an unknown extent (and, in that case, not necessarily an Open Society).”

For anyone who questions whether Open Society works directly against Russian interests, that single line should dispel all doubts. Moreover, it provides some background as to why Russia in 2015 banned Open Society from operating on its territory due to the threat it posed to the country’s “constitutional order.”

Another MEP on the list, Monica Macovei of Romania, serves as something like the golden mean for star-studded Soros status.

“Resolutely progressive; unquestionable ally of Open Society values; does not hesitate to go against her group’s instructions; however, can sometimes be described as a loose cannon with her own, uncompromising set of priorities.”

When reading such an assessment, one might get the mistaken impression that the European Parliament is designed to serve the will of George Soros and his highly controversial agenda, as opposed to the will of the European peoples.

What does Soros want?

To say that George Soros, who was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary, has an influence on the global scene, would be the understatement of the century. His excessive wealth allows him to finance a veritable army of organizations, many serving at cross purposes.

Indeed, Soros, 87, has been connected to movements and civil disturbances as diverse as distanced as Black Lives Matter movement in the US, to the Maidan uprising in Ukraine.

And nowhere has Soros’s influence been more felt than in the ongoing European debate over migrants. 

It looks like the European refugee crisis, which has been blamed on the Syrian civil war, would not occur in its current intensity without the direct assistance of the Open Society Foundation.

Thanks to the advocacy work of the Migration Policy Institute and the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), both Soros-sponsored organizations, the mass resettlement of Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa into Europe became the norm.

In fact, it appeared that the so-called “Merkel Plan” – the deal struck by the EU and Turkey – was the brainchild of the European Stability Initiative, “in addition to the largesse of George Soros’ foundations,” F. William Engdahl wrote in the Near Eastern Outlook.

Considering that the massive influx of Muslim migrants threatens to change the face of “Christian Europe” forever, and without any vote on the matter by the people of Europe, perhaps it is time to see exactly what kind of direct influence George Soros and his Open Society Foundation are having on European parliamentarians. After all, these are not the play toys of any one individual, but the representatives of an entire state.

Soros-Funded NGOs Aiming to Bring Down Hungarian Gov't – Foreign Minister

George Soros © imago stock&people / www.globallookpress.com

The activities of organizations funded by US billionaire investor George Soros in Hungary are “anti-democratic,” as they want to undermine the government in Budapest, the foreign minister of Hungary told RT.

Soros “would like this government to fail, he would like to kind of fire this government because he doesn’t like our approach, doesn’t like our policies,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told RT’s Sophie Shevardnadze.

“We find it very anti-democratic if someone from abroad would like to influence Hungarian voters on whom to vote for,” he asserted.

Several days before the interview, the Hungarian parliament began to discuss a bill allowing authorities to audit NGO executives and request detailed reports on their foreign donations.

Earlier in January, chairman of the ruling Fidesz party Szilard Nemeth said that “these organizations must be pushed back with all available tools, and I think they must be swept out, and now I believe the international conditions are right for this with the election of the new president [Donald Trump].”

Last September, Nemeth, who is also the deputy chairman of Hungary’s National Security Committee, submitted a list of 22 NGOs “connected to the Soros network for the purpose of having these organizations screened.”

Foreign Minister Szijjarto said it is obviously the right of his country to be protected from foreign influence. “This is what we have heard a lot from the US for the last months – that external influence is so dangerous… So, it’s a good reason – if this is the American position, it can be our position as well.”

Hungary, which lies at the very heart of Europe, last year became a main passageway for hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees eager to reach northern European countries. The government, led by right-wing President Viktor Orban, responded by erecting fences along Hungary’s borders and introducing strict border controls. Budapest has consistently refused EU-backed mandatory resettlement quotas, calling them a blow to member states’ sovereignty.

Szijjarto cited intelligence reports alleging that “there were organizations which helped illegal migrants find ways to Hungary, to find where they could violate our border, to find out how to apply for asylum status, and these reports have said that George Soros was in the background of these organizations.”

video 26:18

Countries to Hungary’s east and south are concerned about Soros’ operations, too. In Macedonia, an organization called Stop Operation Soros (SOS) has been launched. Its founder, Nikola Srbov, accused Soros of hijacking civil society, calling upon followers to “fight against one-mindedness in the civil sector, which is devised and led by Soros,” according to Vecer newspaper.

Russian prosecutors branded the Open Society Foundation (OSF), a major Soros asset, and Open Society Institute’s Assistance Foundation threats to the country’s constitutional order and national security in 2015, and banned them from providing grants to Russian partners.

Groups run by Soros have also been accused of meddling in Ukrainian affairs and supporting the 2013 Euromaidan protests that led to the ouster of democratically-elected President Viktor Yanukovich.

‘Stop Operation Soros’ Movement Begins in Macedonia

It is interesting to watch as country after country begins to chip away at the foundations established by George Soros. They started out well enough helping communist countries transition to democracies, but their influence didn't stop there. Soros was a polarizing figure in the recent American elections and probably one of the reasons that establishment politics was rejected. 

While Russia has born the brunt of criticism for interfering with the American elections, which is probable but not really proven, we have no idea what role Soros had to play in the elections. We know he was a big supporter of Hillary but whether it was just financial support or if there were more clandestine things going on, we may never know.

Does Soros have a God-complex because he has so much money and he thinks he knows how the world should work and goes about trying to make it so? Who knows? We also don't know whether this 'push-back' by Macedonia and Hungary is completely legitimate or whether there is a communist-like benefactor behind it. In politics things are seldom as they seem. 

Caution: This article is from RT (Russia Today) and so some political bias can be expected. 

A new initiative, Stop Operation Soros (SOS), dedicated to countering the influence of American billionaire activist George Soros, has been launched in Macedonia.

In a press conference on Tuesday, the founders of the group called on all “free-minded citizens,” regardless of ethnicity or religion, to join them in the “fight against one-mindedness in the civil sector, which is devised and led by George Soros,” the Vecer newspaper reported. The movement says it will first focus on uncovering ‘subversive’ activities by Soros-funded NGOs.

According to Nikola Srbov, a columnist for pro-government news portal Kurir and co-founder of SOS, Soros-funded NGOs have monopolized civil society in Macedonia and used their position to suppress dissenting views.

“We've witnessed the takeover of the entire civil sector and its abuse and instrumentalization to meet the goals of one political party. That is unacceptable and goes beyond the principles of civic organizing,” Srbov said at the press conference.

“The Open Society Foundation, operating under the Soros umbrella, used its funding and personnel to support violent processes in Macedonia. It has monopolized the civil society sector, pushing outside any organization which disagrees with the Soros ideology,” he stated.

Another co-founder, Cvetin Cilimanov, editor-in-chief of the state-run MIA news agency, accused Soros’s Open Society Foundations of undermining Macedonian sovereignty by working not only with the opposition center-left SDSM party, but also with outside interests. By cooperating with foreign embassies and organizations such as USAID, Cilimanov believes Soros-backed groups have interfered in the political process of Macedonia.

“This is unacceptable and has largely contributed to a feeling in the public that the traditional relations of partnership Macedonia enjoyed with some countries are being undermined,” Cilimanov told journalists.

A third founder of the initiative and editor-in-chief of the Republika news portal, Nenad Mircevski, declared that the group would work towards the “de-Soros-ization” of Macedonia, echoing a speech made by former prime minister and leader of the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party Nikola Gruevski in December. In the speech, Gruevski accused foreign powers and Soros-backed organizations of meddling in Macedonian politics.

Opposition figures have expressed concern at the rhetoric used by Gruevski, fearing the start of a crackdown on dissent and advocacy groups.

The Open Society Foundation (OSF) was set up by Hungarian-born Soros between the mid-1980s to early 1990s with the stated aim of helping former Eastern bloc countries transition from communism. However, aside from its support for progressive causes such as drug policy reform, the OSF has also been involved in political activities and Soros publically supported the violent overthrow of the legitimately-elected government in Ukraine during the ‘Euromaidan’ revolution. This has earned him the ire of Russian authorities, which in 2015 banned Soros and his foundations as a threat to national security.

Soros and his foundations have come under scrutiny elsewhere as well. In an interview with the internet portal 888.hu in December, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that 2017 would bring about “the extrusion of George Soros and the forces symbolized by him.” Orban has accused Soros of undermining European borders and values by helping facilitate the flow of refugees and asylum seekers from the Middle East and elsewhere. During a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange also blasted the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, funded by Soros, for focusing “exclusively on negative stories about Russia and former Soviet states.”

One of the World's Great Oligarchs No Longer Welcome in Hungary

Soros-funded NGOs should be ‘swept out’ of Hungary – deputy chief of ruling party

Business magnate George Soros © Luke MacGregor / Reuters

All civil society organizations financed by billionaire George Soros should be “swept out” of Hungary, the vice chairman of the ruling Fidesz party, Szilard Nemeth, declared.

Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs), such as Transparency International, financed by billionaire George Soros and his Open Society Foundation ought to be banned from operating in Hungary, Nemeth said at a news conference Tuesday, according to Hir TV. The official claimed that Soros and his NGOs were “pushing global big capital and a related political correctness into Hungary.”

"These organizations must be pushed back with all available tools, and I think they must be swept out, and now I believe the international conditions are right for this with the election of the new president [Donald Trump],” said Nemeth.

In September, Nemeth, who is also the deputy chairman of Hungary’s National Security Committee, said he submitted a list of 22 organizations “connected to the Soros network for the purpose of having these organizations screened.”

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is the leader of populist right-wing party Fidesz, takes a similarly dim view of Soros’s political activities. In an interview with the internet portal 888.hu in December, Orban said that 2017 would bring “about the extrusion of George Soros and the forces symbolized by him.”

“In every country, they will want to displace Soros,” Orban told journalists. “This can already be seen in Europe. They investigate where the money comes from, what kind of intelligence connections there are, which NGOs represent what interests.”

Hungarian lawmakers are soon set to debate a bill allowing authorities to audit the executives of NGOs, something which is to date reserved to the MPs and public officials in the country. A respective proposal has appeared on the newly published parliamentary agenda for 2017.  

But despite this and Nemeth’s statements, the Open Society Foundation, which according to Reuters funds over 60 NGOs in Hungary, has pledged to continue its work in the country.

“The Open Society Foundation will continue to work in Hungary despite government opposition to our mission of fairer, accountable societies,” the organization’s president, Christopher Stone, wrote in an email to Bloomberg. “In Hungary and around the world we are more focused than ever on working with local groups to strengthen democratic practice, rights, and justice.”

The Open Society Foundation was set up by Hungarian-born Soros between the mid-1980s to early 1990s. Orban himself received a grant from one of Soros’ foundations to study politics at Oxford University’s Pembroke College in 1989 (which he has since pledged to repay). Orban has accused Soros of undermining European borders and values by helping facilitate the flow of refugees and asylum seekers from the Middle East and elsewhere.