Bilateral US-Turkish relations play an important role for the entire region and the world as a whole. Since the end of World War II and during the Cold War one of Turkey’s most important international relationships has been with the United States. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the United States and Turkey continued to pursue strategic partnerships in other areas, including military, economic, and energy cooperation in the region. Considering such a wide and important range of issues arising in bilateral relations between the United States and Turkey, it is necessary to analyze and study their bilateral relations, in order to explain many events in the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean, and the Black Sea.
Lobbying plays a very important role in the country’s foreign policy. These activities take many forms and formats. The most famous influence groups are the military-industrial complex, banks and finance, the energy sector, the technological unit, religious groups, etc. On K Street they say that without lobbying one will possibly determine your fate without your participation. For a long time, Turkey’s geographical and strategic importance was of key importance to Washington, which is why Ankara did not worry about lobbying its interests on Capitol hill. The situation changed after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. Armenian and Greek lobbyists worked to promote a bill banning the sale of American weapons to Ankara. Finally, Washington’s decision to impose an arms embargo embarked on the Turkish government made it necessary to form influence groups.
Unlike the Armenian and Greek communities, Turkish does not have serious lobbying potential. American Turks have a relatively low degree of integration into US political life. As a result, American Turks prefer to stay away from big politics. While the Greeks, Armenians and Jews had a high level of resource mobilization during the elections, the Turkish community is extremely scattered and passive. It loses in comparison with other ethnic groups. In such a situation, Ankara has only one opportunity to build lobbying activity – to register public organizations using the services of private lobbying firms (lobbying system) such as the Turkish-American National Steering Committee (TASC) which aims to promote and strengthen common Turkish-American opinion on issues affecting joint areas of cooperation[1]. The TASC is composed of many leaders of Turkish-American communities and other organizations.
In 2009 alone, the Turkish lobby spent nearly $1.7 million lobbying American officials on Turkish issues. Among the main lobbyists working and paid by the Turkish government were former congressman Dick Jeffardt and Bob Livingston[2]. According to the Washington Post, in order to prevent the adoption of a resolution on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish government “spends more than $300,000 a month on communication specialists and influential lobbyists.[3]” Today, the Turkish government works with a wide range of lobbyists and public relations firms. Initially, the Turks began working with the company Gray & Company, which, after merging with Hill & Knowlton, became one of the largest lobbying companies in Washington. The lobbyists of this company often provided the Turks with access to influential Republican congressmen. Turkey hired several major campaigns to effectively lobby the White House. The most influential of them were the Podesta Group led by Tony Podesta, the brother of the former President Obama’s administration, John Podesta; Gephardt Government Affairs, led by former Democratic Party leader Dick Gerhardt and International Advisors, who had access to State Department officials.
The main company whose cooperation with Erdogan is specifically directed against the Hizmet Movement (Fethullah Gulen) today is Amsterdam & Partners LLP. Amsterdam & Partners manages an account of $50,000 per month on behalf of the Turkish government and was hired to investigate and discredit the Hizmet Movement[4]. “We have been retained by the Republic of Turkey to expose allegedly unlawful conduct by the Gulen network worldwide,” said Robert Amsterdam, founding partner of Amsterdam & Partners LLP, during a press conference held at the National Press Club in Washington DC[5]. “The activities of the Gulen network, including its penetration of the Turkish judiciary and police, as well as its political lobbying abroad, should concern everyone who cares about the future of democracy in Turkey.” This company, in turn, has hired the following firms to fulfill part of their public relations and government lobbying strategies: Mercury Public Affairs, which provides consulting services in connection with the representation of the company in the Turkish government over the investigation of the Fethullah Gulen case and his organization in the United States. There also happened to work Trump’s former lawyer Paul Manafort also worked. The Madison Group, which received $80,000 to work “on behalf of the Republic of Turkey for Amsterdam & Partners,” provided legal advice and lobbying for the federal government; McBee Signal; Jim Arnold, an advisory service to Amsterdam and Partners to investigate schools and businesses led by Fethullah Gulen, also helps an Texas education firm; MediaFix Associates; Kindel Gagan and Amsterdam Advanced Advocacy LLC. Another company that was used against Gulen is the Flynn Intel Group, led by General Michael Flynn, who received $530,000 from Turkish concerns to advance Turkey’s national security interests[6]. Flynn Intel Group provided services to Inovo BV (a lobbying firm founded by Ekim Alptekin, chairman of the Turkish-American Business Council) with a focus on Fetullah Gulen and charter schools in the United States. Special Advisor Robert Muller launched an investigation in which Flynn faced possible allegations of fraud and money laundering for not disclosing a payment of $530,000 from the Turkish government. Flynn was also under investigation for participating in a conspiracy to illegally remove Fethullahah Gulen and deliver him to Turkey in exchange for $15 million. Flynn pleaded guilty to the FBI lies about his conversations with the Russian ambassador about sanctions. He also admitted that Turkish government officials directly controlled his lobbying work. On November 8, 2016, Michael Flynn published an article arguing for the extradition of Fethullah Gulen to Turkey. Founded by former House Democratic leader Dick Gefardt, the Gephardt Group was hired by Turkey from February 2016 to December 2016 for $1.7 million[7]. It was engaged by the Republic of Turkey to provide services as an independent contractor for lobbying and government relations in accordance with the provisions of the agreement between Turkey and Gephardt.
In addition to political lobbying, Turkey is diligently working on the American public opinion. The Fleishman-Hillard company hired by the Turks, offers strategic planning, crisis management and campaign management in the media, has even its own broadcasting studio. The lobbyists of this company work closely with the Turkish Embassy, promoting a positive image of Turkey in the leading federal and regional media. Since 2007, Turkish government lobbyism has been supported by a network of nonprofit cultural, educational, and economic American-Turkish organizations. Most structures with Turkish government capital are grouped around two main organizations: the Turkish-American Association (TAA) in Washington and the Federation of Turkish-American Associations (FTAA) in New York.
TAA actively cooperates with the oil (Exxon Mobil) and military (Lockheed) corporations, using the services of their lobbyists. By December 2015, the TAA oversaw the Congressional Working Group on Turkish Affairs, consisting of 150 members of the House of Representatives and 27 senators. Honorary members included former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Republican Party Conference Chairwoman Virginia Fox, former House Speakers Dennis Hastert and John Beiner, and three former Pentagon executives – Bill Cohen, Donald Rumsfeld and Leon Pannet. Obviously, the backbone of the pro-Turkish lobby is made up of Republicans promoting the interests of the American military-industrial complex and the intelligence community. At the same time, influential politicians of the present and past are not averse to getting additional funds for lobbying Turkish interests in Washington. The pro-Turkish lobby in the United States plays a significant role in Congress decisions on the Middle East. Thus, the Obama administration was able to reduce Turkey’s external appropriations in 2008–2010, thanks to a democratic majority in both houses of Congress. However, after the 2014 midterm elections, the Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Then-lower House speaker John Beyner met with Erdogan three times, promising to block “any initiatives against the US-Turkish friendship.” As a result, the Appropriations Committee rejected the White House proposal to reduce Turkey’s military-technical assistance from $10 to $8 million.
Although influential interest groups are involved in Turkish lobbying, there are serious constraints. Firstly, it is a tandem of the Armenian and Greek diasporas, whose lobbyists repeatedly blocked pro-Turkish resolutions and bills. The second deterrent and the most serious is the Israeli lobby. For a long time, Israeli lobbyists in the US supported Turkey in view of its good neighborly relations with Israel. So, the members of the Congress working group on Israeli affairs made a lot of efforts to block the resolutions on recognition of the Armenian Genocide in 2006 and 2010. However, after the deterioration of Turkish-Israeli relations in connection with the incident with the Freedom Flotilla in May 2010, leaders of Israeli influence groups said they would no longer support Turkey’s interests in Washington. And finally, on October 29, 2019, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution on a 405–11 vote to recognize the Armenian genocide. The Senate passed the resolution through unanimous vote on December 12, 2019[8]. The third factor is represented by the Gulen group, influential and opposed to Erdogan. Unlike the classic pro-Turkish lobby, the American-Turkic Alliance is oriented towards the Democratic Party. An analysis of various congressional hearings on Turkish topics showed that Gulen’s lobbyists are consistently blocking lobbying initiatives from organizations associated with the Erdogan regime. Supporting the pro-democratic Gulen group, the Obama administration is holding back pro-Turkish Republican lobbyists, limiting Ankara’s influence and maneuvers in Congress. However, despite a number of problems and contradictions, Ankara still remains a serious regional power for the United States, which, according to some leading political elites in Washington, especially among Republicans, shares Western values, which significantly distinguishes it from such regional Muslim powers as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran. Consequently, relations will remain an important point in promoting American interests in an ever-changing region, with one important caveat – for the United States, Cold War Turkey and Turkey today are entities of different strategic importance.
[1] Turkish American National Steering Committee. Official website. Retrieved from Link
[2] Arab Unrest Puts Their Lobbyists in Uneasy Spot. The New York Times. Retrieved from Link
[3] White House and Turkey Fight Bill on Armenia Genocide Label for WWI-Era Killings Has House Support. Washington Post Staff Writer. October 10, 2007 Retrieved from Link
[4] Turkey’s coup attempt a boon for lobbyists. Politico. Retrieved from Link
[5] Amsterdam & Partners LLP global presence. Turkey. Retrieved from Link
[6] Mueller probes Flynn role in plot to deliver cleric to Turkey. CNN. Retrieved from Link
[7] Draining the swamp of Turkish money and influence. HuffPost. Retrieved from Link
[8] US Senate defies Trump in unanimous vote to recognize Armenian genocide. The Guardian. Retrieved from Link
