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Real Time Investigations Tracking private influence on public policy

Turkey’s influence over lawmakers surfaces in Ohio hearing
By Luke Rosiak on 09/10/09 @ 7:27 am | 1 Comment

Labeling the killing of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923,
many at the hands of Ottoman government, an act of genocide has been a
controversial issue in Turkey, among some historians, in the
U.S. Congress, and now in the unlikely venue of the Ohio Board of
Elections, where recent hearings indirectly considered the government
of Turkey’s connection, if any, to Turkish advocacy groups in
Washington.

Backed by lawyers from the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund,
Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, filed a false claims complaint against
David Krikorian, who ran against her in 2008 as an independent and
garnered 18 percent of the vote. Schmidt’s complaint stems from
campaign literature in which Krikorian claimed she `has taken $30,000
in blood money from Turkish sponsored political action committees to
deny the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children by
the Ottoman Turkish government during World War I.’

Though Jean Schmidt doesn’t sit on the subcommittee responsible for
the Armenian Genocide legislation, it’s clear that she’s a favorite of
the Turkish community. With $18,450 in contributions from three
Turkish-focused PACs since 2007, the second-term House member has
received far more than even influential senior members, and nearly
twice as much as the second-highest recipient, Virginia Foxx, whose
son-in-law is Turkish. A list of fundraisers compiled by the Turkish
Coalition USA PAC shows that the group held several events for
Schmidt, raising thousands more. And four individuals who gave to
Turkish PACs also donated a combined $8,700 directly to Schmidt’s
campaign.

At issue before the Ohio Board of Elections is whether Krikorian’s
language holds up – whether it was accurate to describe three
Turkey-focused political action committees as `Turkish sponsored.’ The
false claims complaint against Krikorian comes after the board
censured Schmidt for a `reckless disregard for truth’ in her own
campaign literature.

Lobbyists for the government of Turkey, including former congressmen
Bob Livingston, made more than 2,260 contacts with officials in an
unparalleled push to quash a resolution in Congress that would deem
the events genocide. But political action committees favored by
Turkish Americans have, on paper, no direct connection with the state.

In a deposition, Schmidt repeatedly told Krikorian’s attorneys that
she could not recall details about her fundraising and legislative
discussions. She said she had never heard of the Armenian massacres
until Krikorian – who is of Armenian heritage – raised the issue, and
that she still hasn’t decided how she would vote on a resolution that
would condemn the act as genocide, should it reach the House floor.

But materials put out by the Turkish Coalition of America and authored
by a lawyer, Bruce Fein, who now represents Schmidt in the complaint,
say that `Congresswoman Schmidt has on numerous occasions voiced her
opposition to such resolutions and maintains that the historical
question is not appropriate for Congress to legislate. The
congresswoman, based on her independent research, does not believe the
tragic events=85 constitute genocide.’

Schmidt acknowledged reading a book on the killings by Guenter Lewy, a
college professor, which figures in a controversy of its own. The
Southern Poverty Law Center claimed that the government of Turkey paid
Lewy to pen the book, `The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A
Disputed Genocide,’ in a manner favorable to the country. In December,
Lewy, represented by two lawyers from the Turkish American Defense
Fund who also hold positions at the Turkish Coalition of America –
Bruce Fein and David Saltzman-sued the Southern Poverty Law Center and
the report’s author, on the grounds that the article claimed that Lewy
was an unregistered foreign agent, which he says is false. The
government of Turkey has funded academic programs, including the
Institute for Turkish Studies at Georgetown University, and endowed
professorships.

As Krikorian’s counsel questioned Schmidt about whether the PACs were
indeed `sponsored’ by the state of Turkey, he repeatedly tried to nail
down Schmidt’s view of the 1915 events. Schmidt sought some
wiggle-room by saying that genocides were, by definition,
state-sponsored, and that no trial or tribunal had concluded that the
massacre was directly linked to the government at the time.

In June, while President Barack Obama visited Turkey, an essay
appeared in a Turkish newspaper under Schmidt’s byline opining that
the United States should not investigate the killings. `What happened
in 1915 must never be forgotten,’ the article said, but in her
deposition, Schmidt was squishy about just what happened.

A fundraising e-mail from a Turkish PAC says she is `willing to stand
up to the Armenian lobby, and it is important for the Turkish
community to support her.’ But Schmidt, who says her campaign was run
by her husband, her chief of staff and interns, claimed to have no
role in setting up the fundraisers, no inkling of why Turkish donors
had become a surprising part of her fundraising base and no
recollection of meeting top donors, including one who chauffeured her
around Turkey. (In May, Schmidt took a $10,000 trip to Turkey,
sponsored by the Turkish Coalition of America.)

It’s not the first time Schmidt has declined to take a clear position
or found herself making statements contradicted by her record. This
week, video surfaced of her telling a woman who claimed that Obama may
not have been born in the United States that she agrees with her,
despite having previously issued a statement saying he is `indeed a
citizen of this country.’

Schmidt expressed little familiarity with the workings of her campaign
as well as the complex ties between Turkish groups, including the
Turkish American Legal Defense Fund, whose lawyers, she says, are
being paid in campaign funds. (The latest expense reports don’t reveal
the amount.)

`What is the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund?’ she is asked.

`It’s a U.S. organization that has a PAC,’ she answers.

`The Legal Defense Fund does?’

`I don’t know. I don’t know. I guess it doesn’t. I don’t know. I don’t
know what it is.’