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Propublica Reports Turkey Wasting Millions On Foreign Lobbying

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  • Propublica Reports Turkey Wasting Millions On Foreign Lobbying

    PROPUBLICA REPORTS TURKEY WASTING MILLIONS ON FOREIGN LOBBYING

    Panorama.am
    14:00 24/08/2009

    ProPublica, an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces
    investigative journalism in the public interest opens a window on
    foreign lobbying. Among them was one country with a longstanding
    image problem: Turkey.

    The reports writes that from 1915 to 1923, as many as 1.5 million
    Armenians perished, many at the hands of the Ottoman government,
    but a precise description of the events has been an extraordinarily
    sensitive subject in Turkey. The issue also has risen regularly in
    Congress, thanks in part to American-Armenian groups that have pushed
    for government affirmation that the killings amounted to genocide.

    In October 2007, with elderly Armenian survivors from the era
    in attendance, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs approved a
    resolution that would do just that. The next step would be a vote
    before the entire House, something Turkey wanted desperately to
    avoid. On more than any other issue, Turkey, which has a U.S.-led
    war in Iraq on its border, is seeking help in a longstanding effort
    to join the European Union.

    The genocide question split U.S. leaders. All eight living former
    secretaries of state at the time sent a letter warning Congress
    that offending Turkey could have serious diplomatic consequences for
    the United States. Both Barack Obama and his chief opponent for the
    Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton, were in
    the Senate; Clinton backed a resolution recognizing the genocide,
    and Obama made it a campaign pledge.

    Turkey's lobbyists made contact with the executive branch 100
    times to enlist help pressuring congressional leaders to squash the
    resolution. The Livingston Group worked Congress. The firm's lobbyists
    contacted the office of Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., author of the
    resolution, four times on Oct. 4 to arrange a meeting with Turkish
    Ambassador Nabi Sensoy. A few weeks later, Sensoy was withdrawn in
    protest of the House's consideration of the measure.

    Turkey didn't lobby just Congress - the country hired foreign agents
    to promote the cause with people outside the administration, too. Noam
    Neusner, who served as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush,
    worked the powerful Jewish lobby, meeting with an array of groups
    including the influential American Israeli Public Affairs Committee
    a combined 96 times to persuade them to oppose the resolution,
    FARA records show. Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize
    Israel, and relations have been generally positive; but in the end,
    AIPAC supported the resolution.

    On Oct. 26, 2007, some sponsors of the resolution backed off a full
    floor vote, and the legislation never advanced. FARA records quantify
    the effort Turkey's lobbyists put into the issue: 673 contacts in a
    single month, and more than 2,200 in the filings overall - the most
    of any country.

    In all, records show, Turkey spent $4.2 million to mobilize its
    lobbyists to influence a resolution that hinged on the single word
    -- genocide. Some $1.9 million of that went to DLA Piper, a top-50
    U.S. law firm that operates globally and has taken on such high-profile
    cases as the defense of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung
    San Suu Kyi in Myanmar. The dispute demonstrates the power of labels -
    and the lengths to which a country will go to protect its world image.

    The FARA data show the deep reach that even small foreign governments
    can have on Capitol Hill. The biggest spenders in foreign lobbying
    aren't always America's closest allies or its biggest trading
    partners. Interests in Dubai, Morocco and Equatorial Guinea were among
    the top spenders on lobbying and public relations campaigns. Smaller,
    poorer countries also weighed in on issues such as debt relief and
    human rights.
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