EFFORT TO ALIGN JEWISH COMMUNITY WITH TURKEY ON GENOCIDE ANGERS ARMENIAN ACTIVISTS
The Forward
November 14, 2008
A former Bush speechwriter goes to work for Turkey.
Armenian activists are crying foul over Turkey’s hiring of a Jewish
lobbyist to work against the recognition of the Armenian genocide.
Noam Neusner, former chief speechwriter on policy issues for President
Bush and White House liaison to the Jewish community, was hired by
the government of Turkey to promote strong ties with major Jewish
groups and to urge these groups to oppose House Resolution 106,
which would have labeled the murders genocide. (Neusner has written
for this newspaper since April, contributing to the Forward Forum.)
The disclosures, required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act
and filed September 30, provide a window into the work being done
behind the scenes to sway Jewish organizations on foreign policy
issues. Turkey has been among the leading foreign governments to lobby
the Jewish community. Eastern European and Middle Eastern governments
also have conducted outreach efforts, but on a smaller scale.
According to the filings, Neusner Communications, where Neusner
is listed as principal, received a monthly retainer that recently
was increased to $8,500 for Neusner’s extensive contacts with major
figures in the Jewish community. It was the Armenian National Committee
of America, an advocacy group with goals that include ensuring the
appropriate commemoration of the Armenian genocide, that first made
the documents public.
Neusner Communications received a total of $80,833 for the period from
November 2007 to September 2008, according to the filings. Neusner
said he does not discuss client relationships.
The Turkish government’s lobbying effort in Washington also included
contracts with Richard Gephardt and Dick Armey, two former members
of Congress, as well
as dealings with several public relations firms. Gephardt and Armey’s
efforts were not targeted to Jewish groups, and the former congressmen
were paid much more than Neusner Communications.
Aram Hamparian, ANCA’s executive director, called the hiring of Neusner
to work on behalf of the Turkish government a misguided attempt to
manipulate Jewish-American opinion. Hamparian argued that Jewish
support in America for the Turkish side is crumbling and therefore
there is a need to hire a lobbying firm aimed specifically at the
community. This is a moral issue, he said. There is no wiggle room on
the issue of genocide denial, just as on the issue of Holocaust denial.
The dispute between Turkish and Armenian representatives in the
United States focuses on the murder of more than 1 million Armenians
in the Ottoman Empire after World War I. While leading historians and
many Western countries have characterized the murders as genocide,
the modern Turkish government, which succeeded the Ottoman Empire,
refuses to accept this definition and is fighting attempts worldwide
to recognize the events as such.
The issue has reached Congress several times, most recently in October
2007, when HR 106, which recognized the murders as genocide, passed
the House Foreign Affairs Committee and was on its way to approval
on the floor. But massive Turkish pressure and requests from the Bush
administration blocked the resolution from going any further.
The HR 106 issue was at the heart of Neusner’s work on behalf of
the Turkish government, according to the FARA documents. As the
debate in Congress reached its peak, phone calls and e-mails to
Jewish leaders intensified. The files list dozens of contacts with
leaders and Washington directors of most major Jewish organiza-tions,
including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, B’nai B’rith
International, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Council for
Public Affairs, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs,
the American Jewish Congress and the Conference of Presidents of
Major American Jewish Organizations. The topic of all these calls,
as stated in the filing, was the same: HR 106.
Other advocacy work included arranging meetings for Jewish leaders
with the Turkish president, prime minister and foreign minister, as
well as helping to organize a photo exhibit in Seattle of historic
synagogues in Turkey.
Some conversations seemed to go directly to the core of the Turkish
concerns in Washington, such as the June 19 discussion with two Aipac
officials on Turkish concerns on Armenian issue; Lack of support on
the Hill from Jewish organizations, or the August 25 call to Jess
Hordes, head of the ADL’s Washington office, on ADL’s position re:
Armenia & genocide.
Hordes told the Forward that there is nothing unusual about foreign
countries trying to promote their interests by contacting the
Jewish community. They do what lobbyists traditionally do ensure
communication between their embassy and our community, facilitate
meetings and arrange events, he said.
Pro-Turkish activists said that Armenians also are effectively
lobbying the Jewish community, using Armenian organizations in the
United States to lobby Jewish leaders to side with them in the dispute.
According to one pro-Turkish activist, while most Jewish leaders are
sympathetic to the Armenian claim as a matter of historic truth,
they oppose having Congress intervene on this issue, because they
believe it will complicate relations with Turkey.
Jason Epstein, a consultant who worked on behalf of the Turkish embassy
in Washington, said that Turkey seeks the support of Jewish Americans,
in part because the community is more likely to respond to issues of
global concern and also because of the strong bilateral relationship
between Turkey and Israel.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
