THE HILL: HASTERT CONTRACTED TO LOBBY FOR TURKEY

Today’s Zaman
April 13 2009
Turkey

The Turkish government has signed another prominent former
congressional leader to join its K Street team, The Hill, a
congressional newspaper published daily when the US Congress is in
session, has reported.

"Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert [R-Ill.] and others at
his firm, Dickstein Shapiro, are working on a $35,000-per-month
contract for Turkey, according to records on file with the Justice
Department. Hastert was the longest-serving Republican House Speaker
until he retired from his seat after the 2006 midterm elections. He
joined Dickstein in June 2008," The Hill, which has a special focus
on business and lobbying, political campaigns and goings on at Capitol
Hill, reported on Friday.

The report drew a swift reaction from the US based-Armenian diaspora,
with the Armenian Assembly of America reporting on its Web site the
same day that Hastert’s contract was "part of [Turkey’s] continuing
campaign to pressure President Barack Obama, his administration and
the US Congress to sweep history under the rug."

According to The Hill, the agreement is a subcontract between
Hastert’s firm and the Gephardt Group, founded by Richard Gephardt,
an ex-Missouri congressman who served as the Democratic House leader
for several years. Gephardt and others at DLA Piper replaced the
Livingston Group, longtime lobbyists for Turkey, as its Washington
representatives last year.

"In a Feb. 27 letter to Thomas O’Donnell, Gephardt’s former chief of
staff and executive vice president at his firm, Dickstein partner
Robert Mangas says he and Hastert ‘will be principally involved in
the representation’ of Turkey. Mangas says in the letter that the firm
will serve as Turkey’s counsel, ‘in connection with the extension and
strengthening of the Turkish-American relationship’ in several areas,
such as trade, energy security and counterterrorism efforts," The
Hill said, while noting that one issue Hastert and others lobbying for
Turkey will have to deal with this year is a congressional resolution
that defines the killing of Anatolian Armenians by Ottoman Turks
during World War I.