TURKS SCARE THEMSELVES BY CLAIMING ARMENIANS SPEND MILLIONS
ON LOBBYING
25-08-2005 15:15:00 | USA | Articles and Analyses
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
Hundreds of Turkish "scholars" are hired by various
centers, institutes and foundations in Turkey to write and
publish articles and books on Armenian issues, in general, and
the Armenian Genocide, in particular.
Almost all of these centers, funded directly or indirectly
by Turkish governmental sources, have been set up to produce
anti-Armenian propaganda which is translated into dozens of
languages and mailed to libraries, parliaments, scholars and
journalists around the world.
Despite the millions of dollars spent on this propaganda
war, the Turkish government is apparently not satisfied with the
results. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul announced last month that
Ankara was devoting even more resources to this campaign in
order to flood the world with revisionist materials on the
Armenian Genocide.
One of these Turkish propaganda mills, appropriately
located in Ankara, is called the Institute for Armenian Research
(Ermeni Arastirmalari Enstitusu), a division of the Center for
Eurasian Strategic Studies. This so-called Institute has been
publishing a periodical since 2001 that is exclusively dedicated
to denigrating Armenians.
Last week, Fatma Sarikaya, a Board member of the Turkish
Forum, translated into English and posted on the Forum's web
site a summarized version of an article on the Armenian-American
lobby, written by Dr. Senol Kantarci, a researcher at the
Institute for Armenian Research. The article was originally
written in Turkish and published in the Institute's periodical
in 2001, under the title: "The Armenian Lobby: The Creation of
the Armenian Diaspora in America and the Lobby's Activities."
While Kantarci's Turkish article remained unknown and
unread, Sarikaya's English translation attracted widespread
attention after it was posted on several Turkish and Armenian
web sites. Her version had a more sensational title: "Money
spent by the Armenian Lobby in America: In 1994 alone, the
Armenian Assembly of America spent $7,000,000, most of it on
lobbying the Congress."
Not surprisingly, the article contains many historical and
factual errors that even a high school student, let alone a
"researcher" with a Ph.D., would not make. Before refuting the
ridiculous Turkish claim that Armenian-Americans spend
astronomic sums to lobby Congress, let's focus on some of the
other assertions made by the author.
Kantarci wrote that Armenian students started arriving in
America as early as 1840. He said that these young men were
"raised with hate for the Turks. Though small in number, this
elite group of Armenians was very effective in creating
anti-Turkish sentiments in America." Kantarci is trying to make
the point that Armenians have been campaigning in America
against Turkey for 165 years. What he does not say is why these
young Armenians from Turkey were so anti-Turkish? What had the
Turks done to them and their families, even before the Genocide,
to cause them to have such intense feelings against Turks?
To justify the advances scored by Armenian political
activists in recent years and excuse the Turkish setbacks,
Kantarci wrote: "Hundreds of Armenian lobby groups were founded
in America. The total number is staggering when considering they
all have branches in all corners of the land. Excluding the
religious groups, the number of Armenian establishments is
1,046. With the religious groups this number reaches 1,228. The
aim of all these establishments is making anti-Turkish
propaganda...."
Kantarci further claimed that, while the Armenian
population in America is estimated between 800,000 and one
million, "their representation in Congress is far beyond
proportion." This is obviously false, as there are no
Armenian-Americans at all in the Senate and only two House
members are partly of Armenian origin.
After misstating the names and activities of many
Armenian-American organizations, Kantarci made his biggest
mistake by claiming: "In 1994 alone, the Armenian Assembly of
America spent $7,000,000 - most of it on lobbying the Congress."
The claim that Armenians spend huge sums to lobby Congress
completely freaked out some Turks. For example, one Turk after
reading Kantarci's article, wrote on a Turkish web site that
even though he loves eating basturma very much, he would be
forced to give it up, because most of the basturma sold in the
U.S. is made by Armenians. He said he feared that a part of the
money he pays to the Armenian shop owner for the basturma would
go towards Armenian lobbying efforts.
Kantarci's reported lobbying figures are completely false.
The Armenian Assembly and all other Armenian groups collectively
do not spend even a tiny fraction of the $7 million claimed in
his article.
According to the publicly available figures for the latest
three years of tax returns of the Armenian Assembly, the
organization has spent on legislative lobbying just $30,000 in
2003; $27,000 in 2002; and $100,000 in 2001. For the year 1994,
the Assembly informed this writer that it had spent a total of
$272,000 on governmental, legal and lobbying efforts. One can
safely assume that less than $100,000 of that amount may have
been spent strictly on lobbying the Congress. This is a far cry
from the $7 million claimed by this Turkish "scholar."
The facts clearly point out that Armenians spend very
little on lobbying. On the contrary, it is the Turkish
government that spends millions of dollars to hire the best
American lobbying firms that money can buy. When a country is
trying to cover up a massive crime like genocide, it does need
to spend millions of dollars. Even then, as the Turks found out,
it is a total waste of their money. You cannot hide a genocide,
no matter how much money you spend!
But when you have the truth on your side, as Armenians do,
you don't need to spend millions on lobbying!