The California
Courier Online, November 9, 2023
1- FBI
Investigates Links Between
NYC Mayor’s
Campaign and Turkey
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Israeli
Settlers Invade Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem
Patriarchate
3- AAF Delivers
$486,000 of Medicines for Artsakh Armenians in Armenia
4- Letters to
the Editor
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1- FBI
Investigates Links Between
NYC Mayor’s
Campaign and Turkey
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Mayor of New York City Eric Adams seems to have a special
affinity for Azerbaijan and Turkey. We will
soon find out if that special relationship has overstepped the bounds of
legality.
A year ago, I wrote an article about Mayor Adams who
notoriously had declared: “After I retire from government, I’m going to live in
Baku.”
The New York Daily News published an article in 2021 under
the title: “NYC mayoral candidate Eric Adams accepted foreign travel to
countries with a history of corruption.” The article disclosed that “Brooklyn
Borough President Eric Adams has accepted thousands of dollars in travel and
other perks from China, Turkey and Azerbaijan, three countries with a
well-documented history of suppressing their citizens.”
Adams recently acknowledged that he had traveled to Turkey eight
times. In August 2023, he boasted during a Turkish flag-raising ceremony in Manhattan that there were probably no other mayors in New York City history who had visited Turkey as
frequently as he has. In August 2015, the Turkish government paid thousands of
dollars for then-Brooklyn Borough president Adams to visit Turkey for six days where he signed a sister
city agreement with Istanbul’s
Uskudar district. The Turkish consulate paid up to $4,999 for his airfare,
hotel stay and ground transportation, according to Adams’
disclosure with the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB). The New York
Daily News reported that in 2016, “Azerbaijan’s
tourism ministry paid up to $4,999 for Adams to visit its capital Baku for four days,
according to the borough president’s COIB disclosure.” Adams has held
fundraising events for his campaign in the Azeri and Turkish restaurants Baku Palace
and Ali Baba in New York City.
On Sept. 19, 2023, Mayor Adams attended an event hosted by President Erdogan’s
wife Emine at the Turkish House in New
York City.
Last Thursday, 10 FBI agents raided the home of the Mayor’s
chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, to investigate “whether Mayor Eric Adams’s
2021 election campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal
foreign donations, according to a search warrant obtained by The New York
Times.” The 2025 reelection campaign of Adams
paid Suggs’ company nearly $100,000 for fund-raising and campaign consulting
services.
“Investigators sought to learn more about the potential
involvement of a Brooklyn construction company with ties to Turkey, as well as a small university in Washington, D.C.,
that also has ties to the country and to Mr. Adams,” the NYT reported.
“According to the search warrant, investigators were also focused on whether
the mayor’s campaign kicked back benefits to the [KSK] construction company’s
officials and employees, and to Turkish officials.” The City news website
reported that 84 donors, most of them employees of KSK Construction Group,
whose founders are from Turkey,
had contributed over $69,000 to the Mayor’s campaign. However, “multiple people
listed in Adams 2021 campaign donation records as KSK employees either said
they did not donate to Eric Adams or refused to state whether they had ever
donated,” The City reported.
During last Thursday’s raid, the FBI searched for records of
travel to Turkey and documents linking the government of that country and its
intermediaries to the Adams campaign, seizing three iPhones, two computers and
various files from Suggs’ home. Investigators also sought documents regarding Bay Atlantic
University, a Turkish-owned university
in Washington, D.C. that opened in 2014. In 2015, Adams
“visited one of the school’s sister universities in Istanbul, where he was given various
certificates and was told that a scholarship would be created in his name,”
according to the NYT.
Last Thursday, the New York City Mayor, who had traveled to Washington, D.C. for
meetings with Senior White House, Members of Congress and other mayors,
abruptly cancelled his meetings and returned back to New York City the same day as the FBI raid.
The NYT reported: “The [search] warrant suggested that some
of the foreign campaign contributions were made as part of a straw donor
scheme, where donations are made in the names of people who did not actually
give money. Investigators sought evidence to support potential charges that
included the theft of federal funds and conspiracy to steal federal funds, wire
fraud and wire fraud conspiracy, as well as campaign contributions by foreign
nationals and conspiracy to make such contributions.”
In July, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted
seven individuals who fundraised for the Mayor’s 2021 campaign on multiple
counts, including conspiracy and bribe-taking and conspiracy to funnel illegal
donations, according to the NYT.
The FBI investigation has not targeted Adams
personally. He said that he “had no clear knowledge, direct or indirect, of any
improper fundraising activity—and certainly not of any foreign money.”
But if it is proven that he had conspired with the Turkish
government to receive illegal campaign funds, the Mayor may have to retire in Baku or Istanbul
much earlier than he expected.
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2- Israeli Settlers Invade
Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem
Patriarchate
JERUSALEM—On
November 5, around 3 PM, a group of Israeli settlers entered the Armenian
Quarter’s Goverou Bardez (Cows’ Garden) where the Armenian community was having
a peaceful sit-in to prevent the further illegal demolition of the interior
walls of the Cows’ Garden.
Danny Rothman and George Warwar, business partners who head
Xana Capital, backed with about 15 armed settlers and attack dogs, demanded the
expulsion of Armenians. Warwar, himself a Christian Arab, also made threats to
Armenians: “I will get you, one by one!”
The settlers were also active, announcing that the Armenians
are all “Goys [non-Jews] and when the Messiah comes, [they] will all die.”
The Armenian community refused to back down and stood firmly
on the Patriarchate’s property. Israeli Police arrived on the scene to defuse
the situation, which prompted more settlers to arrive in a show of force.
Save the ArQ Movement community leaders Hagop Djernazian and
Setrag Balian and the legal team, led by Chicago
lawyer Karnig Kerkonian, convened an emergency meeting and a member of the
team, Eitan Peleg, arrived on scene to negotiate the stand down.
The Armenian Patriarch His Beatitude Archbishop Nourhan
Manougian also arrived on the scene and stood side by side with the Armenian
community of Jerusalem,
along with priests and bishops. The community stood strong, with 200 members in
unity to prevent the takeover and save the Armenian Quarter.
The Israeli settlers left the premises. The members of the
Armenian community remained on site.
The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem sent a letter on
October 26, 2023 informing Xana Gardens Ltd. of its intent to cancel the lease
agreement signed on July 8, 2021 regarding the Armenian
Gardens in the Old
City, Jerusalem, Fr Aghan Gogchian, Chancellor at
Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
A lease had earlier been signed by the Armenian Patriarchate
that would hand over 25% of the quarter to a commercial entity for a 99-year
lease. The reported intention was for the Jewish developer to build a luxury
hotel on some of the land that is currently a parking lot, but is on prime real
estate nestled just within the Old
City walls.
Though signed in 2021, the deal became reality in April of
this year when Xana Capital took over the parking lot and placed signs
announcing its ownership, sparking protests in the Armenian Quarter against the
Patriarchate.
Both the Palestinian Authority and Jordan noted that the
patriarch’s “dealings constituted a clear violation of relevant international
covenants and decisions, which aim to preserve the status quo in Jerusalem and protect the
authentic Jerusalemite Armenian heritage.”
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3- AAF Delivers $486,000 of
Medicines for Artsakh Armenians in Armenia
GLENDALE—The
Armenia Artsakh Fund (AAF) in partnership with Direct Relief of Santa Barbara
delivered $486,000 of emergency aid to Artsakh Armenians this week by an air
shipment.
This valuable and timely shipment included medicines,
medical supplies, emergency medical packs, emergency medical kits and several
pallets of hygiene products. The shipped products will help many of the more
than 100,000 Armenians of Artsakh who were forced to leave their homes in
Artsakh.
Through the years, Direct Relief has donated to AAF tens of
millions of dollars of life saving medicines, medical supplies and equipment
for Armenia
and Artsakh. In the first 10 months of this year alone, Direct Relief has
donated $27 millions of much needed medicines to Armenia.
“AAF values and appreciates very much this long-standing
partnership with Direct Relief,” said Harut Sassounian, President of AAF.
In the past 34 years AAF has delivered to Armenia and
Artsakh a total of over $1 billion worth of humanitarian aid on board 158
airlifts and 2,568 sea containers.
For more information, call the AAF office: (818) 241-8900;
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4- Letters to
the Editor
Dear Editor:
With great interest, I read Harut Sassounian’s November 2
column regarding the Azerbaijani hostages at Gaza, communicated to President Biden by Ms.
Melissa Zukerman recently. Unfortunately, it is quite a task to identify
individuals like Ms. Zukerman, who spearhead self-serving lobbying efforts
during these tragic times. And, that with the false premise of influencing the US foreign
policy. It takes time and journalistic savvy to pursue such leads as the one
you spotted. Thank you for your efforts in unraveling the falsified letter
which in reality was never endorsed by the celebrity signatories.
Zorik Mooradian
Tarzana,
Calif.
Dear Editor:
I was in Yerevan
when the UN fact-finding committee visited Karabakh/Artsakh after 30 years of
absence from the region and reported: “Why did these residents voluntarily
leave their homes? We don’t see any signs of Ethnic Cleansing….”
This kind of double standard statement is most insulting. We
should not let the UN get away with it. I suggest we make a big fuss and
embarrass the UN. After nine months of blockade and all sorts of attacks and
harassment, the UN has been ignoring and remaining totally silent about
Artsakh’s plea, but now it is screaming about the Israeli and Palestinian
conflict.
We have many institutions such as newspapers, organizations,
churches, TV stations, etc., to mobilize and raise hell.
Armine Koundakjian
Studio City,
Calif.
Dear Editor:
I just returned from my second annual Medical Mission in Yerevan and Giumri, (In
the past we used to go to Artsakh) and I was appalled to read on the front page
of the October 26 issue that the newly elected Mayor of Yerevan had spent
$220,000 for his Inauguration Party.
It is shocking to know that his family, friends, and party
members did not stop him and allowed this to happen. Especially because
currently, we have about 120,000 Artsakh refugees in Armenia, and the only thing many
have are the clothes they wear and their documents.
These people desperately need every cent that they can get,
especially when a country like United
States gave only $11.5 million. Following
that in Yerevan when an American of Armenian
descent approached the US
Ambassador and told that she was ashamed to be a tax paying American, the
Ambassador’s response was that since it was at the end of the year there was
small amount of money left in the treasury. A short while later when the
horrendous Israeli massacre happened, United States immediately allocated
$11 billion and then it doubled the sum and continues to increase. While in
Artsakh’s refugee case even though the donation was measly, the sum remains the
same.
On my last day, we visited and spoke to four refugee
families in Vanatsor. They all said the same; the Russian Peacekeepers instead
of defending them, they instructed to immediately leave otherwise they would
face massacres, rape, torture, and imprisonment.
In summary, shame to Mayor Avinyan. Even though his
inauguration coincided with the 2805-th Anniversary of the establishment of Yerevan, the oldest
continuously inhabited city of the world. He had no right to waste so much
money. Now I wish and hope that this will not be the start of a wasteful,
trivial, and ineffective mayorship.
Bedros Kojian
Orange, Calif.
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