Sunday, August 7, 2022
No Result
View All Result
Asbarez.com
NEWSLETTER
ՀԱՅ
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports
No Result
View All Result
Asbarez.com
ՀԱՅ
No Result
View All Result

Armenians Should Counteract Countless Congressional Trips to Turkey

by Harut Sassounian
January 14, 2014
in Columns, Featured Story, Latest, My Turn, Top Stories
8
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Harut Sassounian

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

The Turkish government, its lobbying firms, and Turkish-American organizations have spent millions of dollars to take members of Congress and their staffs on all-expenses-paid trips to Turkey with the intent of buying their allegiance.

This is standard practice for Washington’s influence peddlers. Understandably, Turkish power brokers would want to sway congressional decision-making, as long as the trips follow proper legal procedures. However, as investigative journalist Shane Goldmacher revealed last week in the National Journal, members of Congress and their paymasters often manipulate the nebulous rules to accomplish their self-serving interests.

Goldmacher begins his article, ‘How Lobbyists Still Fly Through Loopholes,’ by describing the globe-trotting adventures of a pair of political odd fellows chasing the almighty dollar: “Dennis Hastert and Dick Gep­hardt couldn’t stand each other when they led Congress a decade ago. But now they’ve moved to K Street, where the flood of money tends to wash over such personal differences. These days, they work hand in hand as two of Turkey’s top lobbyists, with their respective firms pocketing most of a $1.4 million annual lobbying contract.” Not surprisingly, Republican Hastert and Democrat Gephardt accompanied eight members of Congress on an “all-expenses-paid journey” to Turkey last April.

The National Journal article covers congressional trips to several countries, including Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Israel. Under the subtitle, ‘Turkey Exploits the Biggest Loophole,’ Goldmacher discloses the extensive preparations made by Hastert’s firm for the congressional trip to Turkey, even though lobbyists are prevented under the rules from planning or paying for lawmakers’ visits: “Lobbyists have been intimately involved in the months of planning for the trip, with dozens of back-and-forth emails, phone calls, and meetings on Capitol Hill. As the trip neared, one lobbyist at Hastert’s firm, Laurie McKay, held conference calls and emailed daily with the schedulers of the eight House members who participated: Republicans Virginia Foxx, George Holding, Adam Kinzinger, Todd Rokita, Lee Terry, and Ed Whitfield; and Democrats Sheila Jackson Lee and Chellie Pingree. McKay even escorted three of them to Washington Dulles International Airport and helped them check in with Turkish Airlines.”

Ignoring the ban on lobbyists accompanying members of Congress on overseas excursions, Hastert, Gephardt, Robert Mangas, Janice O’Connell, and an undisclosed lobbyist with the Caspian Group joined the congressional delegation in Turkey. Goldmacher explains that “the Turkey trip was sanctioned under a 1961 law, the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act, [MECEA] which allows foreign governments to shuttle members of Congress and their staffs abroad if the State Department has approved the destination nations for ‘cultural exchange’ trips. About 60 countries have such clearances.” Azerbaijan and Turkey are among the 60, Armenia is not! The Armenian government should make the necessary arrangements to include Armenia in the MECEA program.

The National Journal further reports: “A long list of nonprofits supportive of Turkey have paid for congressional travel there.” One such prominent group is the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA). Interestingly, besides running TCA as a nonprofit, its president, Lincoln McCurdy, “dishes out campaign cash to pro-Turkey politicians as treasurer of a political action committee.”

The National Journal’s revelations are reinforced by LegiStorm.com, a website that closely monitors congressional travel and finances. It discloses that 615 congressional visits were made to Turkey since 2000, at a cost of $3.5 million, paid by the following nonprofit organizations: American Friends of Turkey, Council of Turkic American Associations, Institute of Interfaith Dialogue for World Peace, Istanbul Center, Maryland Institute for Dialogue, Mid-Atlantic Federation of Turkic American Associations, Pacifica Institute, Rumi Forum for Interfaith Dialogue, Turkic American Alliance, Turkish-American Business Council, Turkish-American Business Forum Inc., Turkish American Federation of Midwest, Turkish Coalition of America, Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists, Turkish Cultural Center NY, Turkish Foreign Economic Relations Board, and Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians.

In 2013 alone, 87 congressional visits were made to Turkey at a cost of $640,000, and 36 trips to Azerbaijan at a cost of $262,000. During that same period, no member of Congress was sponsored to visit Armenia. Only one trip was organized to Armenia and Artsakh (Karabagh) for California State Assemblymen and Los Angeles City Councilmen by the ANCA-Western Region, in collaboration with the Armenian Consulate.

Clearly, such trips make members of Congress more sympathetic toward their host country. Unless Armenian-Americans and Armenia begin sponsoring similar trips, members of Congress could become more favorable toward Turkey and Azerbaijan, and less supportive of Armenia and Artsakh.

Harut Sassounian

Harut Sassounian

Next Post

The Front Line

Comments 8

  1. Sarkis says:
    9 years ago

    I have always respected Harut Sassounian as a dedicated, patriotic Armenian-American leader, from the days when he broke the news of the “recall” aka firing of Ambassador John Evans for his unambiguous and truthful of what the Americans, Turks, and most Europeans refer to as “the 1915 events” by its actual name “The Armenian Genocide”.

    But here I have to respectfully disagree. No matter what steps Armenian-Americans take, and no matter how much of our money we as individuals or the Republic of Armenia as a state spend “sponsoring” trips, we will not be able to accomplish anything of substance in Washington, apart from empty, symbolic gestures. Let’s face reality: the United States pursues realpolitik-based interests it sees in the South Caucasus region, which mainly involves turning the entire region into a cheap brothel to service American energy and weapons interests, and which sees as its main rival as Russia, and to a lesser degree Iran. Understanding this, it becomes very clear that Turkey, a militarily capable Sunni Islamic nation which has been the natural, historical enemy of Russia for centuries, is way too important for the United States to ever abandon, especially for a traditionally pro-Russian state like Armenia America would not force Turkey to play nice with fellow NATO member Greece over Cyprus, what makes us think they will risk alienating their regional minions and henchmen in Ankara for the sake of what they see as small, weak, divided geopolitical nuisance (to western interests) like Armenia or Armenian.

    And further, American “democracy” is limited to small amounts of voter input over mainly domestic matters. Congress cannot effect foreign policy. We’ve seen “pro-Armenian” Representatives and Senators do an about face when they were promoted to positions in the Executive branch, John Kerry, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton were recent examples in a very long historical line. For any readers interested, here is a good explanation of why Washington will remain an anti-Armenian viper’s nest regardless of what we Armenians do: http://theriseofrussia.blogspot.com/p/the-two-ring-circus-called-american.html

    I say that rather than waste a cent on America’s professional liars aka politicians, we Armenians rally every cent we can and invest it into the economy and infrastructure of our sacred Armenian homeland. Instead of showering an undeserving American Congressman or woman, use the equivalent money to provide food and heat to Armenia’s poor population. United Armenian Fund, and Armenia Fund (Himnadram) are two excellent choices. If you don’t trust them, and you have money for charity, look to other organizations or even consider starting a charity yourself… And right now our Armenian brothers and sisters in Syria could also use the money much more than any Congressman. Instead of wasting a penny on Congress, use the money to help ease the process of turning “Syrian-Armenians” into Citizens of the Republic of Armenia.

    Reply
  2. Avetis says:
    9 years ago

    Mr. Sassounian, I agree with a lot of what you write but what you are suggesting here is utterly silly, a waste of time and money and a distraction. Please come to the realization that US politicians are pro-Turkish not because of money donations or tacky trips to Turkey but because of GEOPOLITICS. Moreover, we simply do not have the resources that Turks and their buddies the Jews have to buy or bribe American officials into compliance. The US is a lost cause. The US has become the most dangerous and corrupt political entity on earth. Stop encouraging the wasting of our limited resources in the US and start seeing the big picture. In this big picture, experienced men such as yourself should be organizing delegations to Moscow in an attempt to collaborate with Russia’s large and affluent Armenian community and to help deepen Russian-Armenian relations. At the end of the day, Armenia does not fit into the Western world’s geopolitical agenda. The West has always been in bed with our historic enemies and they are in the Caucasus region today only to exploit energy reserves and to contain Russia and Iran. The only nations on earth today that care to see the existence of Armenia is Russia and Iran. So, please stop distracting us from the things we need to do and stop wasting our time and resources in an anti-Armenian vipers next like Washington.

    Reply
    • GeorgeMardig says:
      9 years ago

      You are right, unfortunatly this is the reality,

      Reply
  3. GeorgeMardig says:
    9 years ago

    NO values, NO discency, NO justice is left in the world, only cheapskate people.

    Reply
  4. T.K. says:
    9 years ago

    Exposing the fact that USA politicians are sleeping with turks is very important. for years turks have been successful to create this image of a very powerful armenian lobby who is standing in between turkey and america. USA public knows nothing about inter dealings of USA and turkish military industrial complex and lobbying efforts.
    however, to hope that there will be any change from some congressmen coming to Armenia is not real. to bring an example senator Melendez who is active in Armenian issues, is a staunch anti-russian who will do everything (including arming turkey just to piss off Russia). So unless USA political scenes goes through revolution and things really change there is no use for us as Armenians to spent money on them. We don’t have caviars to gift them by kilos.
    T.K.

    Reply
  5. Alex Postallian says:
    9 years ago

    75% of the U.S. politicians are on the take…….

    Reply
  6. Louis Derderian says:
    8 years ago

    To be more precise it is the Gulen Movement in the USA that is the culprit of these trips to Turkey and Azerbaijan. They use their “missionaries” to pay visits to lawmakers and they originally come here illegally as teachers for their some 140 charter schools they manage. They suck out American take money intended for educating American children and teach Turkish this and that with their famous Turkish olympaids that our taxes are paying for. It is correct they are strategically located which gives them the green light to literally get away with “murder”. This CIA Gladio B project that uses Turkey to topple governments and put in AMerican puppets in: Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, trying in Syria and now in their own country with Erdogan, is really in control. Turks don’t have any control anymore its NATO and CIA, now it is backfiring with all of the Taksim square protests. This is America’s interest in Central Asia oil and other natural resources and to de stabilize Russia and China. http://www.gulenpoliticians.blogspot.com

    Reply

Leave a Reply to GeorgeMardig Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended

Russia Again Blames Azerbaijan for Ceasefire Violation

In Response to Lavrov, Yerevan Says it Voiced Concerns about Russian Peacekeepers in 2021

2 days ago
U.S. Wants to Assist Armenia in Reforms

Blinken Discusses Karabakh with Pashinyan, Aliyev

2 days ago

Connect with us

  • About
  • Advertising
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

© 2021 Asbarez | All Rights Reserved | Powered By MSDN Solutions Inc.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports

© 2021 Asbarez | All Rights Reserved | Powered By MSDN Solutions Inc.

Accessibility

Accessibility modes

Epilepsy Safe Mode
Dampens color and removes blinks
This mode enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode
Improves website's visuals
This mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode
Helps to focus on specific content
This mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode
Reduces distractions and improve focus
This mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode
Allows using the site with your screen-reader
This mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.

Online Dictionary

    Readable Experience

    Content Scaling
    Default
    Text Magnifier
    Readable Font
    Dyslexia Friendly
    Highlight Titles
    Highlight Links
    Font Sizing
    Default
    Line Height
    Default
    Letter Spacing
    Default
    Left Aligned
    Center Aligned
    Right Aligned

    Visually Pleasing Experience

    Dark Contrast
    Light Contrast
    Monochrome
    High Contrast
    High Saturation
    Low Saturation
    Adjust Text Colors
    Adjust Title Colors
    Adjust Background Colors

    Easy Orientation

    Mute Sounds
    Hide Images
    Virtual Keyboard
    Reading Guide
    Stop Animations
    Reading Mask
    Highlight Hover
    Highlight Focus
    Big Dark Cursor
    Big Light Cursor
    Navigation Keys

    Asbarez.com Accessibility Statement

    Accessibility Statement

    • www.asbarez.com
    • August 7, 2022

    Compliance status

    We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.

    To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.

    This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.

    Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.

    If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email

    Screen-reader and keyboard navigation

    Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:

    1. Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.

      These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.

    2. Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.

      Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

    Disability profiles supported in our website

    • Epilepsy Safe Mode: this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
    • Visually Impaired Mode: this mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
    • Cognitive Disability Mode: this mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
    • ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
    • Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
    • Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

    Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments

    1. Font adjustments – users, can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
    2. Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over 7 different coloring options.
    3. Animations – epileptic users can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
    4. Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
    5. Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
    6. Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
    7. Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.

    Browser and assistive technology compatibility

    We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.

    Notes, comments, and feedback

    Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to