IPR president Peter Walker was advising on brand protection amid an
international dispute two weeks ago.
He was on an official visit to address Turkish PR association the PRCi
when public anger against Italy’s refusal to extradite Kurdish guerrilla
leader Abdullah Ocalan ran high. The Turkish government has accused
Ocalan of murdering 30,000 people. Italy, which arrested him on 12
November for being an illegal immigrant, refused to extradite him
because Turkey retains the death penalty.
During the trip Walker was contacted by Italian manufacturer Pirelli to
advise Pirelli’s Turkish management on what was for them an impending
crisis. ’It doesn’t matter if it’s international terrorism, or the
pursuit of unpopular heads of state, there is always a fallout which
impacts on trade and few companies are prepared for it,’ Walker said. He
advised the company to focus media attention on the fact that most of
its shareholders are Turkish and that it has hundreds of Turkish
employees.
Will he be going to Chile to protect British interest there as the
Pinochet dispute wrangles on?
’No I am not, my Turkish is bad but my Spanish is even worse,’ he
replies.
