Matt Broomfield
Turkish efforts to influence the US political system through corrupt and illegal means are once again in the headlines, after New York City mayor Eric Adams’ indictment on charges of accepting improper benefits from foreign agents including an unnamed “senior official in the Turkish diplomatic establishment” and multiple Turkish businessmen, netting him over $10,000,000 in fraudulent campaign funds and a laundry-list of luxury perks. The sensational raid on Adams’ NYC residence in the early hours of Thursday 26 September follows a long-term trend of US politicians falling from grace following shady dealings with Turkish officials and institutions seeking to increase their political influence in the USA.
According to the unsealed indictment against the former policeman and Democratic Party politician, who was elected on a promise to tackle crime in NYC: “for nearly a decade, ADAMS sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him.” The official allegedly funnelled so-called ‘straw donations’ to Adams, enabling him to not only bypass laws intended to prevent foreign influence on Turkish politics, but also to fraudulently claim matched funding.
🔴 New York City Mayor Eric Adams is under investigation by the FBI for his relationship with Turkey.#FBI | #Turkey | #investigationhttps://t.co/zGmv4LdJ3Y pic.twitter.com/DzfPam3txu
— MedyaNews (@1MedyaNews) November 20, 2023
Overall, “the 2021 campaign reaped over $10 million in Matching Funds based on the false certifications that the campaign complied with the law,” the indictment alleges. In addition, the official and other Turkish figures provided Adams with global flights on Turkey’s national airline, “free rooms at opulent hotels, free meals at high-end restaurants, and free luxurious entertainment while in Turkey.”
This was then repaid when Adams was told it was “his tum to repay the Turkish Official”, per the indictment. Adams pressured the New York City Fire Department to “facilitate the opening of a new Turkish consular building – a 36-story skyscraper – without a fire inspection, in time for a high-profile visit by Turkey’s president.” The building would have failed the fire inspection, the indictment states, and yet Adams threatened a city official he would lose his job if he did not comply, forcing it to open anyway. Turkish officials allegedly also demanded concessions over Armenian Genocide Day, seeking assurances that Adams would not acknowledge the slaughter of the Christian minority by Ottoman Turkish forces.
The full sixty-page indictment, available online, details further instances of ‘illegal campaign contributions’ and luxury indulgences provided to Adams by multiple Turkish businessmen. While the charges are yet to be proven in court, Adams’ indictment once again demonstrates the extent to which Turkey seeks to influence US politics through corrupt, under-the-table means.
Notably, President Donald Trump’s erstwhile national security adviser Michael Flynn was indicted for acting as an undisclosed Turkish agent. Flynn was paid more than $500,000 to advance Turkish interests during the 2016 election campaign and seek the expatriation of Fethullah Gülen, the exiled cleric whom the Turkish government alleges masterminded a failed coup in the country. Another Republican politician, Jean Schmidt, was forced to repay nearly $600,000 she had collected from a Turkish lobby organisation, while a 2015 report found that no less than 159 prominent US political figures had enjoyed privately-sponsored trips funded by Turkish government-controlled organisations.
Within the US, the focus is likely to remain on the allegations of breathtaking, in-your-face display of corruption by a politician in one of the country’s most prominent offices. But questions should also be asked about Turkey’s efforts to undermine institutional politics in Washington, New York and elsewhere to suit its own agenda. Representatives of the USA’s nominal Kurdish allies in the war against ISIS have often struggled to secure face-to-face meetings with US officials, reduced to hasty meet-and-greets on the sidelines of conferences and in hotel lobbies. With Turkish officials allegedly hoping to ease their way to political preferment through corrupt donations, it’s little wonder the Kurds are shut out of the conversation.
