The Turkish state and its American pimps

Over the last 30 years, Turkey's activities in the United States trying influence policy and opinion makers have been exceptional. The acquiescence of some Americans; supposedly the purveyors of freedom, democracy, human rights, rule of law and truth, has been utterly disgraceful.

Mario Evryviadis has recently written a good article about the activities of the Turkish state within American circles which can be found here. He begins by pointing out the pervasive influence of Turkey in the United States:

If we only limited ourselves, to the so-called think tanks and related institutions/foundations of America, whose goals are to influence American foreign policy, we notice that not one lacks a Turkish presence. This influence takes the form of either donations, for supposedly funding research programs, or the presence of Turkish researchers (or the presence of Americans) whose partisan positions and sometimes absolute slavishness toTurkish propaganda, is supported by very crude research.

The best results of Turkey’s activities in Washington (originally dating from 1975 after the Cyprus invasion) was recently seen with the presidency of Barack Obama which has literally taken to the last iota the positions and views of a think-tank of the Democratic Party, the Center for American Progress (www.americanprogress. org) which have been recorded in a study by Spencer P. Boyer and Brian Katulis, "The Neglected Alliance: Restoring US-Turkish Relations to Meet 21st Century Challenge", December 2008.

The study that Evryvidis cites can be found here. Evryvidis draws our attention to the date of the abovementioned paper (December 2008) which was right in the middle of the transitional period of the presidential election during which the Transition Team formulates the program and activities of the new U.S. administration. Obviously, the study was written with a view to influencing the incoming Obama administration.

Consequently, Clinton-Obama's first visit to Turkey in early 2009, closely follows the study's policy suggestions. Evryvidis then points out that if you look at the end of the study where they attribute thanks and acknowledgements, there are listed all the Turkish "lechers" of Washington. In addition, the sources of funding are from Germany and Turkey. Therefore, Turkish money is helping to formulate U.S. foreign policy facilitated by an assortment of American pimps. Evryvidis then highlights the main characteristics behind Turkey's lobbying:

First, the Turks know what persons, situations, think-tanks, etc. have the upper hand in both political parties at any time. Secondly, they know that to conduct their work there has to an adequate flow of cash. In the case of Turkey, there are some interesting exceptions on how they operate. The Turks are not stingy and they allocate the most capable diplomats to follow the recipients of Turkish finance and donations, ordering them and literally draining the juices from them. They do not allow the tail of the dog to guide them. They guide the dog, leaving him periodically starved.

Regarding their conquest of America power centres (and educational institutions), the Turks had excellent guidance from the Jewish-American lobby. Jewish-Americans took them by the hand in 1975 and taught them how to short-circuit the decision-making system in the U.S; and specifically, how to operate in Washington and how to direct financing to various institutes/foundations, which number in their hundreds in the U.S.

Today, one is not exaggerating if they claim that the Turks have done a better job than their teachers in this field. And our only consolation is that the Turks have become increasingly autonomous from the Jewish-American lobby, truly believing that their country is more important than Israel to the U.S. Therefore, they find it increasingly more difficult to curb their inherent anti-Semitism, as is proved daily by the government of Erdogan.

Evryviadis then lists the think-tanks and institutes/foundations which have been financed directly or indirectly by the Turkish state, they include:

Council of Foreign Relations, RAND, Brookings, Carnegie Endowment, CSIS, Hudson Institute, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Jamestown Foundation, Eurasia Foundation, German Marshal Fund of the U.S., U.S. Peace Institute, Center for American Progress, Middle East Progress, Center for New American Security, New America Foundation, Century Foundation, Stanley Foundation.

Additionally, Evryviadis writes that other groups dealing with energy and terrorism, whose financing remains obscure, always have a good word about the Turks and how important they are to the safety of the United States and the West. Evryvidis continues on the results of Turkey's systematic lobbying efforts:

Finally, if somebody reads closely the policy-orientated books that are about Turkey in the U.S., which all point out the “strategic” or “central” role of Turkey for the West and the innumerable villains that will confront the world if Turkey “is lost” by the West, they will realise a few interesting things.

The donations and financing, if they do not emanate from Ankara, emanate from hyper-conservative and reactive American institutes, as the John M. Olin Foundation, the Scaife Family Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation etc. the last one, as an example, financed Henri Barkey (background from the Constantiniople) and Philip Gordon with USD$100,000 for a series of anti-Cypriot studies that promoted the Turkish position that Turkey will make war if Cyprus is included in the European Union. Also, Philip Gordon has replaced Daniel Friend as the new U.S. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, with responsibilities that include the Cyprus issue and Greek-Turkish relations.

Source: Infognomon (Mario Evryvidis), Antipodes