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 A few weeks later, Sensoy was withdrawn in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.