REPORT

TURKISH LOBBYING EFFORTS IN THE UNITED STATES

AMERICAN HELLENIC INSTITUTE

INTRODUCTION This report focuses on the three ways Turkish interests are promoted in the USA: • Contracts with Lobbying firms (which have close ties to politicians and often make contributions to politicians’ campaigns, which they have to disclose in FARA documents but apparently rarely do) • Contributions to politicians’ campaigns via Turkish Americans’ political action committees (PACs) The policy points and interests which are affected are also outlined. CONTRACTS WITH LOBBYING FIRMS1

PRINCIPAL FIRM/REGISTRANT AMOUNT NAMES FURTHER DETAILS

Republic of Turkey Greenberg Traurig $1,500,000 Former U.S. Sen. Tim Provide lobbying and government relations Hutchinson, (senior services to Turkey which include proposing director), Rob Mangas and pursuing passage of legislation and (former aide to U.S. Sen. other U.S. government action that will Wendell Ford), Laurie promote Turkey’s interests and improve McKay, and former U.S. Turkey’s image and the US-Turkey Representatives Albert relationship. Wynn and Randy The firm will also enlarge the Congressional Forbes Caucus on Turkey and train U.S. lawmakers on issues of importance to Turkey.

Via Greenberg Capitol Counsel $432,000 John Rafaelli Traurig

Via Greenberg Venable $270,000 Former U.S. Traurig Representative Bart Stupak

Via Greenberg LB International Solutions $270,000 Traurig

American-Turkish Mercury $50,000 Rodney Emery, Daniel Mercury has links with Manafort, Rick Gates 2 Council Wilson, Morgan and Vin Weber (Weber resigned 9/20). Webster, Daniel Rajah

Turkish Embassy Mercury Undisclosed

Halkbank Ballard $600,000 Brian Ballard Connections to Sayfie, Trump Administration and Wexler.

Roketsan Carter Mclean $120,000 Roketsan is a major Turkish weapons manufacturer and defence contractor.

Halkbank McGinn and Co. $440,000

Karsan S-3 Group $320,000 Karsan is a Turkish car manufacturer.

Total: $4,002,000

1 https://efile.fara.gov/ords/f?p=1381:1:5853095774667::::: ; https://www.opensecrets.org/fara/countries/22 2 https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/30/politics/vin-weber-lobbyist-resigns-mercury-mueller/index.html Year by Year Comparison (Turkey’s expenditures on lobbying firms)

HIGH PROFILE CASES • General Michael Flynn receiving $600,000 in 2016 from Turkey to help extradite Turkish Cleric Fetullah Gülen. • Turkey’s long-standing relationship with former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt’s Gephardt Group ended in 2016. • In 2016, “Former U.S. Representative Jean Schmidt, a leading ally of Ankara and strident Armenian Genocide denier during her tenure in Congress, has been fined by the Federal Election Commission for unlawfully taking $500,000 worth of legal services from the Turkish Coalition of America. The TCA was also fined by the FEC for $25,000.3 • Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Dennis Hastert, who enriched himself as a lobbyist for Turkey and then used some of these funds to help cover up his history as a predatory child molester, received a 15-month sentence in 2015.

CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS Turkish Coalition USA PAC contributions to politicians are as follows:

4

Turkish American Heritage PAC contributions are as follows:

5

3http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/20/fec-settles-schmidt-ethics-case/86136138/; https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/22/jean-schmidt-case-campaign-finance-law-enforcement/90800392/; 4 https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?cycle=2016&strID=C00432526 5 https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals.php?id=D000029538&cycle=2018 INTERESTS AND POLICY POINTS OF FIRMS & INTERESTS LOBBYING FOR & PROMOTING TURKEY • Preventing the from recognizing the Armenian Genocide [no longer a focus, after the passage of Armenian Genocide recognition]. • Advocating for the extradition of Gülen to Turkey. • Campaigning against Gülen’s charter schools in the United States and maligning Gülen as an “ayatollah” in waiting. • Attempting to deflect attention from Turkey’s support to Syrian jihadis, official corruption, the killing of Kurds, and the systematic arrest of opponents under the guise of fighting . • Promoting trade, economic and business relations. • U.S. officials arrested Halkbank deputy chief Mehmet Hakan Atilla in March 2017 for allegedly funnelling millions of dollars to Iran to secretly evade sanctions. He was convicted of fraud in early 2018 and sentenced to 32 months in prison. Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have unsuccessfully pushed for the U.S. to release Atilla and end any investigations into Halkbank.

LIMITATIONS The extent to which interests from Turkey are contributing to political campaigns in the USA is unclear. For example, USA Today has reported that Turkish Americans who donated to some campaigns, donated amounts which were disproportionate to their personal incomes.6

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Though dynamics in Washington, DC, are ever-changing, there seems to be a potential negative trend occurring vis-a-vis Turkish lobbying in Washington, DC. Due to actions taken against Halkbank by the U.S. government, major firms such as Ballard Partners have terminated Turkey as a client at the end of 2019.7 Perhaps this is also a result of the additional scepticism in Washington against Turkey. Greenberg Traurig is the sole, and most loyal, major lobbying firm to advance Turkey’s interests in Washington, DC, having renewed its contract with Turkey for approximately $1.5 million in the beginning of 2020.8 Overall, Turkey engages in an aggressive and multi-pronged approach to promote Turkey in policy fora and the various apparatuses of the United States government.

6 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/11/20/lawmakers-got-suspect-turkish-campaign-cash/75982732/ 7 https://floridapolitics.com/archives/308710-ballard-partners-drops-turkish-bank-after-indictment 8https://armenianweekly.com/2020/06/09/turkish-government-wastes-1-5-million-by-paying-us-firm-for-useless-lobbying/ V. 1.0 | 10/2020