BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN
For many years, the Turkish government has hired numerous American companies in Washington, D.C., to lobby and carry out public relations on its behalf.
Hiring such companies is very expensive and most of the time, it is a waste of money, as they produce more paperwork than actual results. But once in a while, they can draft and help publish opinion articles (op-eds) in American newspapers on behalf of Turkish officials and arrange their visits and meetings in the United States.
The Turkish government is obligated to spend large amounts of money to hire such companies because it cannot rely on the Turkish-American community to lobby or do PR on its behalf, no matter how much funding is provided from Ankara. The same situation applies to the Azerbaijani government and the Azeri-American community. Neither the Turkish nor Azeri communities are very active in American politics and have not existed in the United States as long as the Armenian community. This is why Turkey and Azerbaijan rely on paid lobbyists to advance their interests in the United States.
Given the recent turmoil in the relationship between the United States and Turkey, one of the PR firms hired by the Turkish government was probably asked to draft an opinion column on behalf of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and use its contacts to have that article published in The New York Times.
Naturally, the column had to reflect the views of Erdogan rather than those of the PR firm. It would have been interesting to compare the first draft of what the American PR firm first suggested to the final version as revised by Erdogan’s staff.
Judging from the content of Erdogan’s article, one can tell that the PR firm’s proposed text, written delicately and professionally, was not accepted by Ankara. Instead, what The New York Times ended up publishing is a typical bombastic article reflecting Erdogan’s dictatorial and pompous stand! Having rejected the PR firm’s more diplomatic text, Erdogan has made his article useless in having any positive effect on the American public and government.
Erdogan’s August 10, 2018 critical article was titled: “How Turkey Sees the Crisis With the U.S.,”
