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After switching positions, Gephardt and his lobbying firm have taken $8 million from Turkish government

June 6, 2015 By administrator

By Chuck Raasch,

Gephardt and his lobbying firm have taken $8 million from Turkish government

Gephardt and his lobbying firm have taken $8 million from Turkish government

WASHINGTON • As a member of Congress, Dick Gephardt often spoke passionately about the need for the United States to recognize as genocide the mass deaths of as many as 1.5 million Armenians under the Turkish government that began one century ago. Report ST. Louis Post Dispatch

But as a lobbyist for Turkey since leaving Congress in 2005, Gephardt, a Democrat, has taken the opposite side. His behind-the-scenes work has been cited as a factor in the annual failure of Congress to recognize the Armenian genocide.

Justice Department records show that Gephardt’s lobbying firm has been paid more than $8 million since 2008 to fight the declaration and represent Turkey on other contentious issues, including repatriation of Christian holy sites seized over the last century in that Muslim nation.

Now, in the 100th-anniversary year of what Armenians refer to as Meds Yeghern — “great calamity” — two Armenian-American groups are pressuring Gephardt’s lobbying firm to drop Turkey as a client, and for companies to drop Gephardt as their lobbyist.

Gephardt, who declined to respond to repeated interview requests, has ignored the Armenian groups’ letters. Three companies have ended contracts with the Gephardt Group since the two Armenian-American groups launched a letter-writing campaign in January, although none publicly tied the decision to the letters.

Critics of the former congressman from St. Louis say he is just another example of the revolving door between electoral office and the lucrative lobbying business, where policy positions seem to change based on who’s paying the bill.

Son of a Milkman

Gephardt often described himself as the son of a milkman in 18 years representing St. Louis in Congress. He campaigned as a Midwestern everyman, champion of the working class, with All-American ambitions that led to two unsuccessful campaigns for the White House. But since leaving office, he has been emblematic of the path from elective office to private influence, as ex-members of Congress and their former staffers use the power and prestige they built in public office to segue to lucrative lobbying careers. The nonpartisan watchdog Center for Responsive Politics lists 427 ex-members of Congress who have lobbied or advised lobbyists, including former Republican U.S. senators from Missouri Jim Talent, John Ashcroft and Christopher “Kit” Bond.

When he retired from Congress in 2007, Gephardt told the Post-Dispatch that, as a lobbyist, he would be “involved in the same issues I used to be involved in.” He looked forward to weekends off for the first time in 30 years. He built a house in Sonoma, Calif., and had a condo in Naples, Fla., and promised his wife, Jane, that after tromping through Iowa and New Hampshire presidential snows, she would never be cold again.

Gephardt also said that his views of relations between the U.S. and Turkey — often described as the world’s leading Muslim democracy — changed profoundly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“We’ve got to have models out there of Muslim governments that are moderate and successful,” he said.

And yet in 2003, while running for president two years after 9/11, Gephardt co-sponsored HR193, which said recognition of “Armenian Genocide,” along with the Holocaust and genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda, must be recognized to “help prevent future genocides.”

Four years later, he was accepting money from Turkey to fight such recognition.

Over the last six years, the Gephardt Group has earned $4.7 million to $6.7 million annually from a host of corporations and associations, including Google, Goldman Sachs and Boeing, and St. Louis area employers Ameren, Anheuser-Busch, Peabody Energy and Prairie State Generating, according to CRP.

Besides Turkey, Gephardt has had contracts worth a collective $1.4 million representing Taiwan, Georgia, El Salvador and South Korea, according to Justice Department records.

His company’s most recent contract with Turkey, signed in March, is for $170,000 a month, with roughly half going to subcontractors, including a firm that employed former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

In 2013, Gephardt and Hastert helped arrange a visit to Turkey for eight members of Congress. According to the National Journal, they did so by exploiting loopholes in lobbying reforms passed in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal that ended lobbyists’ ability to pay for trips for members of Congress. Lobbyists can, however, plan and accompany members on trips paid for by foreign governments, as the National Journal said happened in this case.

In lobbying for Turkey, Gephardt has stepped to the other side of a highly polarizing, highly charged debate. In recent months, other governments, including Germany, have declared the deaths of Armenians genocide. Pope Francis in April urged such recognition.

In response, the Turkish government — saying modern Turkey should not have to atone for what it calls deaths from war and starvation in the Ottoman Empire in World War I — has pulled envoys from the Vatican.

In the U.S., the Armenian genocide debate is “inflamed” by politically active, second- and third-generation Armenian-Americans whose identity is wrapped in a belief that history demands recognition of genocide, said Edward Erickson, a professor of military history at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico, Va.

But geopolitically, said Erickson, author of a dozen books on Turkey, “the United States needs Turkey a lot more than Turkey needs the United States.”

Among Armenian-Americans, there is a simple explanation for Gephardt’s shift.

It “is premised on one thing, and one thing only, which is money,” said Kenneth Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America.

“The cause of genocide prevention, a core moral imperative of our age, requires, as the pope so powerfully stated, that we not engage in ‘concealing or denying evil,’” Hachikian, a second-generation Armenian-American, told a congressional hearing in April.

At that hearing, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said Turkey’s “campaign of denial … underwrites a disinformation campaign to confuse the historical record.” After the hearing, he identified Gephardt as a key lobbyist in that effort.

The code of discretion

“As a matter of policy, we don’t discuss our clients,” said Thomas O’Donnell, a co-founding partner in Gephardt’s lobbying firm and his former chief of staff in Congress.Through O’Donnell, Gephardt declined interview requests.O’Donnell is among several Gephardt employees with deep roots in Turkish-American relations. Another is Michael Messmer, vice president of Gephardt Government Affairs, and a St. Louis native. He was also on Gephardt’s House leadership staff and later was assistant director of the Congress and U.S. Foreign Policy program at the influential Council on Foreign Relations.

The CRP says 29 former Gephardt Capitol Hill staffers are lobbyists or have worked for lobbying firms.

Messmer also did not respond to interview requests, nor did Hastert. Turkey’s embassy in Washington did not respond to multiple calls and emails.

Gephardt, 74, is not alone in lobbying for positions opposite those taken while in public office. Bond opposed Obamacare as a senator but lobbied the Missouri Legislature in 2014 to expand Medicaid, a key component of President Barack Obama’s health care reforms.

But Gephardt’s change on the genocide issue is stark because of the passion he once brought to the position.

In 1998, speaking to frequent applause from the Armenian National Committee of America in a Capitol Hill event, Gephardt called for Congress to “solemnly remember the genocide which occurred many years ago, but which so deeply affected so many families and people in Armenia. We must always keep that fact, those real facts, in our mind.”

But after going to work for Turkey in 2007, he told the Post-Dispatch that he was working toward a reconciliation that would avoid a genocide declaration, to “get all the facts on the table and let the chips fall where they may.”

Gephardt’s about-face on the issue is mirrored by that of President Barack Obama.

As a candidate in 2008, Obama said “the facts are undeniable” that genocide occurred. And yet in April, Obama avoided using the word “genocide” in his annual statement on the events in Armenia for the seventh consecutive time.

Instead, Obama used “massacre,” “horrific violence” and “dark chapter of history.”

While advocates for genocide recognition say that Turkey cannot move on from a dark chapter by denying it, some historians say the record is not clear in implicating the Turkish government.

Turkey has driven home that uncertainty with the help of not only Gephardt and Hastert, but ex-Republican House leader Bob Livingston and former administration and Pentagon officials.

Records at the Justice Department show scores of Gephardt meetings, email exchanges, arranged visits on Capitol Hill with Turkish diplomats and contacts with the highest officials of the Obama administration, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In late 2010, for instance, records show Gephardt lobbied Clinton, top Obama advisers and members of Congress days before then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pulled back a promised vote on a genocide resolution.

In the wake of actions like this, fellow Democrats have become some of Gephardt’s biggest critics.

“It really impairs having credibility on human rights issues when we pick and choose the genocides we recognize,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and a persistent critic of Gephardt’s about-face.

However, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., dismissed the impact of the revolving door on stopping the Armenian genocide declaration.

“The relationship we have with Turkey and its importance to so many things that are happening in the region right now” is reason enough to avoid it, he said.

Letter-writing campaign

In January, as the 100th anniversary of Meds Yeghern approached, two Armenian-American groups began pressuring Gephardt and his clients.“The American corporate community must have a zero-tolerance policy against any action that either covers up past genocides or in any way contributes to future atrocities,” declared a Jan. 28 letter to the former congressman signed by leaders of the groups, the Armenian National Committee of America and the Armenian Assembly of America.“To that end, as a courtesy, we would like to inform you that we have reached out to all of your clients … to educate them about your lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government.”

The groups sent letters to roughly 200 clients who had hired either Gephardt or other lobbying firms that represented Turkey, saying the companies had a “troubling relationship” with genocide deniers.

The results of the letter campaign are unclear.

Spokesmen for Google, Boeing and of St. Louis-area companies Ameren, Anheuser-Busch and Peabody either refused to comment or said they had no record of receiving the letter.

But Frederick D. Palmer, Peabody’s senior vice president for government relations, wrote back to the Armenian-American groups saying his company would not drop lobbyists just because they represented Turkey.

“The events you describe are tragic indeed, but there is no basis to punish Turkey today, an ally for more than 60 years along with being a democratic and free market example that is rare in the region,” Palmer wrote.

The Los Angeles World Airport canceled its $20,000-a-month contract with Gephardt exactly a month after the letter was sent. Mary Grady, managing director of media and public relations for the airport, declined to say why.

Mike Zampa, communications director for the Port of Oakland, said the port allowed a $160,000 contract with Gephardt to expire in January but described it as a normal change.

The Human Rights Campaign also canceled its $10,000 monthly contract, but Fred Sainz, the rights organization’s director of communications, said it had “nothing to do with the Armenia letter.”

A lobbyist left the Gephardt Group, Sainz said, “and we followed him to his new firm.”

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: Gephardt, Lobbying, Turkey

USA: Port of Oakland Refuses to Renew Turkish Gov. lobbyist Gephardt Contract

March 12, 2015 By administrator

Another setback to Dick Gephardt, Turkish GOV. lobbist

Another setback to Dick Gephardt, Turkish GOV. lobbist

LOS ANGELES – In yet another setback to Dick Gephardt – a former U.S. legislator turned lobbyist for Turkey – the Port of Oakland will not be renewing its six-figure lobbying contract with Gephardt Government Affairs, according to the Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region’s Bay Area chapter.

Former House Democratic Majority Leader Dick Gephardt serves as a registered foreign agent for Turkey and Ankara’s point person in obstructing American condemnation and commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. Last month, the Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region (ANCA-WR) praised the City of Los Angeles and its political leaders for moving to end a contract worth over $850,000 with Gephardt Government Affairs for advocacy work it was conducting on behalf of Los Angeles World Airports.

On February 24, 2015 the ANCA-Bay Area chapter wrote to the newly inaugurated Mayor of Oakland Libby Schaaf to express concerns about the Port of Oakland’s relationship with Dick Gephardt. The letter was addressed to the Mayor of Oakland because she is responsible for nominating all seven members of the Board of Port Commissioners, which controls the Port of Oakland. In their correspondence to Mayor Schaaf, the ANCA-Bay Area Chapter respectfully requested that the Mayor move to immediately end the contractual relationship between the City of Oakland (through the Port of Oakland)and Gephardt Government Affairs, based on that firm’s work, as a paid foreign agent of the Republic of Turkey, to deny the Armenian Genocide and prevent the proper commemoration of this crime against humanity. The letter to Mayor Schaaf, in part, asserted that “It is our understanding that Gephardt Government Affairs, as a matter of public record, has enjoyed a six-figure contract ($160,000 a year) with the Port of Oakland. We appreciate that this contract was not granted during your term in office. However, we do find it unacceptable that the City of Oakland – which is home to a longstanding Armenian American community – the majority of whom have family who were either murdered or brutalized during the Armenian Genocide – has had a contractual relationship with a lobbying firm that profits from genocide denial. Such a relationship clearly falls far short of the humanitarian and ethical standards of the City of Oakland.”

“Dick Gephardt’s unethical work in denying the Armenian Genocide makes his firm persona non grata here in the State of California,” remarked ANCA-Western Region Chair Nora Hovsepian. “Thanks to the great work of our ANCA chapters in Los Angeles and the Bay Area – Gephardt and his firm are beginning to pay a real price for their denial of the Armenian Genocide. As far as the ANCA is concerned, no public agency in the United States and especially in the State of California, should be spending taxpayer dollars on an unethical lobbying outfit that makes money denying the murder of 1.5 million human beings,” Hovsepian emphasized.

Earlier this month, the Gephardt firm signed a new lobbying deal with the Republic of Turkey in which it will be paid $1.7 million from March through December 2015 to actively deny the Armenian Genocide, among other activities. Dick Gephardt has made a name for himself on Capitol Hill by trading on his congressional connections for his work on behalf of the Republic of Turkey. As documents filed with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (which regulates the lobbying activity of those who advocate on behalf of foreign interests in the United States) reveal, Gephardt himself has had to disclose the fact that he acts on Turkey’s behalf as an ardent opponent of legislative efforts to fully recognize the Armenian Genocide.

New York Times writer and author of “This Town” Mark Leibovich outed Gephardt in 2013 for his hypocrisy on the Armenian Genocide. In a television interview later that year, Bill Moyers asked Leibovich about Gephardt’s stand on the Armenian Genocide. “In the House [of Representatives] he [Gephardt] had supported a resolution condemning the Armenian Genocide of 1915. When he left Congress he was paid about $75,000 a month to oppose the resolution,” Moyers commented. Leibovich responded by sharing, “Yes. I guess the word genocide goes down a little easier at those rates.” Also in 2013, Christopher Buckley, the son of William F. Buckley, wrote a review of “This Town” in The New York Times in which he cited Gephardt’s genocide denial efforts. “There are a number of sanctimonious standout “formers” in Leibovich’s Congressional hall of shame, but just to name a few exemplars who gleefully inhabit ethical no-worry zones and execute brisk 180-¬degree switcheroos on any issue, including the Armenian genocide, so long as it pays: Dick Gephardt…”

In his most recent anti-Armenian actions on Capitol Hill, Dick Gephardt aggressively lobbied against H.R. 4347 in the 113th Congress, a House measure to return Christian churches in Turkey to their rightful owners. Last year he also did the bidding of his lucrative Turkish Government client by fighting against a U.S. Senate resolution on the Armenian Genocide. Despite Gephardt’s opposition, the Armenian Genocide bill advanced in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April of last year was ultimately adopted by the full committee by a vote of 12 to 5.

The move by the ANCA-WR to seek termination of LAWA’s contract with Gephardt and to ensure that his contract with the Port of Oakland was not renewed coincides with the launch of a nationwide campaign by a coalition of Armenian American groups, including the ANCA, to pressure Gephardt, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (Dickstein Shapiro, LLC), Greenberg Traurig, Alpaytac, and LB International to stop advancing the Turkish
 Government’s Armenian Genocide denial agenda or face public scrutiny
 and protest. The effort was launched this past January with over 200 
letters sent to Turkey’s lobbying firms and the top businesses, universities, and NGOs who use their services, urging them to promptly drop their association with Turkey’s genocide denial or end their relationships with these public relations firms. Among those receiving letters were PepsiCo, TIME Inc., Amazon, and the Chrysler Corporation, in addition to many others.

The Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region is the 
largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in the Western United States. Working in coordination
 with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the 
Western United States and affiliated organizations around the country, 
the ANCA-WR advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: contract, Gephardt, Oakland, Port, Refuses

Los Angeles Cancels $845,000 Contract with Turkey’s Lobbyist Gephardt Group

February 24, 2015 By administrator

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

HARUT SASSOUNIAN

HARUT SASSOUNIAN

I wrote a column last August warning that the Armenian-American community and all people of good will would boycott the products and services of Anheuser-Busch, Boeing, Chevron, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Google, Los Angeles Airport, National Football League, Port of Oakland, and United Airlines, unless these companies cancelled their contracts with the Gephardt Group, one of Turkey’s notorious lobbying firms.

Ironically, former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt had championed recognition of the Armenian Genocide during his long years in Congress. Yet, soon-after his retirement, Gephardt became a staunch opponent of Armenian issues by peddling Turkish denials of the Armenian Genocide. The latest contract on file with the U.S. Justice Department reveals that the Gephardt Group is paid $1.4 million a year to lobby for Turkey in Washington.

Documents filed by the Gephardt Group with the Justice Department under the ‘Foreign Agent Registration Act’ indicate that Gephardt and his colleagues contacted dozens of House and Senate Members last year to lobby against:

1. Congressional resolutions on the Armenian Genocide and return of Christian Churches by Turkey, and

2. Revelations that Turkey supported Islamic Jihadists during their invasion of the Armenian-inhabited town of Kessab in Syria.

More ominously, Justice Department records show that just before April 24, 2014, Janice O’Connell, Gephardt’s colleague, contacted Brian McKeon, Chief of Staff of the National Security Council at the White House and Chad Kreikemeier, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs, to modify Pres. Obama’s annual statement on the Armenian Genocide, following Prime Minister Erdogan’s deceptive and disingenuous apology for all victims of World War I in Ottoman Turkey.

Justice Department’s records also reveal that Gephardt and O’Connell traveled to Istanbul and Ankara on Turkish Airlines on March 3, 2014 to meet Turkey’s National Security Advisor. Gephardt flew from Paris to Istanbul and Ankara at a round trip cost of $1,513, while O’Connell flew from Washington, DC to Istanbul and Ankara at a round trip cost of $6,986. The two lobbyists stayed at the Conrad Hotel in Istanbul for three nights at the cost of $710 each. While in Turkey, they spent $600 on limousine service.

Last month, the Armenian National Committee of America, Armenian Assembly of America, and Armenian Youth Federation (Eastern and Western U.S.) sent over 200 letters to businesses, universities, and NGOs that are clients of the Gephardt Group and four other lobbying firms for Turkey: Dickstein Shapiro, LLC; Greenberg Traurig; Alpaytac; and LB International. One such letter asked the United Airlines to demand the lobbying firm to end its contract with the Turkish government, if not, the airline should then terminate its own contract with the lobbying firm. If neither action is taken by Feb. 28, Armenian-Americans would carry out a protest campaign against both the lobbying firm and United Airlines.

The efforts to counter Turkey’s lobbying firms already bore its first fruits. On February 23, ANCA-WR announced that Los Angeles World Airports [LAWA], a wholly-owned entity of the City of Los Angeles, has decided to terminate its contract worth over $845,000 with the Gephardt Group, after ANCA called upon Mayor Eric Garcetti last December, “to end any ties between the City of Los Angeles and Dick Gephardt.”

ANCA-WR Chair Nora Hovsepian applauded “LAWA and City of Los Angeles officials for their principled stand enforcing a zero-tolerance policy against deniers of genocide. LAWA’s action reflects the highest standards of good governance and reinforces the proud standing of Los Angeles as a leader — nationally and internationally — on issues of genocide prevention and human rights. As a genocide denier, Gephardt does not deserve a single dollar from the citizens of Los Angeles, and should have no association with our city.”

According to U.S. Government documents obtained by ANCA-WR, the Gephardt Group “had a contract worth over $845,000 with LAWA, which was agreed to in 2012 during the term of former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Since the approval of the contract with LAWA, the Gephardt Group has been drawing over $23,000 a month for its work for the airport, while simultaneously representing the interests of the Turkish Government against the interests of the Armenian-American community.”

After this first major victory, Armenian-Americans should continue urging the remaining 200 companies that are clients of the Gephardt Group and other lobbying firms hired by Turkey to terminate their contracts, because hiring Genocide denialists is patently unethical and bad for business!

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: canele, contract, Gephardt, lobbies, Turkish

Turkish lobbyist are corrupting washington; Call for Nationwide Protests if Lobbying Continues #deturkeyfication

February 9, 2015 By administrator

gephardt-hasterOn Thurs., Jan. 29, a coalition of organizations representing Armenian Americans sent letters to more than 200 businesses, universities, and NGOs currently working with one of 5 firms—including  those led by former congressional leaders Dick Gephardt (Gephardt Government Affairs) and Dennis Hastert (Dickstein Shapiro)—that are helping Turkey to deny the Armenian Genocide in Congress.  #deturkeyfication of Washington

Despite international consensus from historians about the Armenian Genocide, Turkey is well known for its aggressive, ongoing denial of this crime, which witnessed the planned and systematic murder of more than 1.5 million Christian Armenians between 1915 and 1923. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the genocide, and Armenian Americans, along with allies nationwide, will be protesting and drawing public scrutiny on both Turkey’s primary lobbying firms and the companies and organizations that continue to do business with them.

It’s a disgrace that Dick Gephardt and Dennis Hastert—two former leaders of the U.S. House—are making millions enforcing a foreign government’s gag rule on our White House and among the Congress in which they once served,” said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“Gephardt and Hastert should drop their Turkey contract, and, if they won’t, their clients should drop them.”

According to U.S. Department of Justice Foreign Agent Registration Act records, the firms Gephardt Government Affairs, Dickstein Shapiro, Greenberg Traurig, Alpaytac, and LB International all support Turkey’s genocide denial agenda. Their clients include PepsiCo, TIME Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Chrysler.

The letters to the client businesses requested that they—in light of their firm’s participation in genocide denial—demand that their firm end its contract with the Turkish government.

If the firm does not end its relationship with Turkey, the letter requests that the client company/organization end its own contract with the firm.

If neither occurs by Wed., Feb. 25—60 days out from April 24, the global Day of Remembrance of the genocide—Armenian Americans will start protests against these firms and their clients.

Coalition partners include four of the largest Armenian-American organizations: the ANCA, Armenian Assembly of America, and the Armenian Youth Federation of both the Eastern and Western United States.

 

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: armenian genocide, Gephardt, Hastert, Lobbying, Turkish-lobby

Armenian-American Groups Target Genocide Denial Lobbyists Including Former Congressional Leaders Dick Gephardt and Dennis Hastert

February 6, 2015 By administrator

cong_copyEducate Lobbyists’ Clients on Genocide Denial Activity During 100th Anniversary Year of Genocide; A Call for Protests If Continued 
Wednesday, February 6, 2015 – On Thursday, January 29, a coalition of organizations representing Armenian Americans sent over 200 letters to businesses, universities, and NGOs working with one of the five firms that currently work for Turkey for the purpose of denying the Armenian Genocide. These firms include those led by former Congressional leaders Dick Gephardt (Gephardt Government Affairs) and Dennis Hastert (Dickstein Shapiro).
Despite international consensus from historians about the Armenian Genocide, Turkey is well known for its aggressive, ongoing denial of this crime, which witnessed the planned and systematic murder by Ottoman Turkey of over 1.5 million Christian Armenians between 1915 and 1923. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the genocide, and Armenian Americans along with allies nationwide will be protesting and drawing public scrutiny to both Turkey’s primary lobbying firms, and the companies and organizations that continue to do business with them.
“It’s a disgrace that Dick Gephardt and Dennis Hastert – two former leaders of the U.S. House – are making millions enforcing a foreign government’s gag-rule on our White House and among the Congress in which they once served,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America.  “Gephardt and Hastert should drop their Turkey contract, and, if they won’t, their clients should drop them.”
The letters request that the companies demand their firm end its contract with the Turkish government in light of its participation in genocide denial efforts. If the firm does not end its relationship with Turkey, the letter requests that the company end its own contract with the firm. If neither occurs by Wednesday, February 25th – 60 days out from April 24, 2015, the global day of remembrance for the genocide – Armenian Americans will start protests against these firms and their clients.
According to U.S. Department of Justice Foreign Agent Registration Act records, Gephardt Government Affairs, Dickstein Shapiro, Greenberg Traurig, Alpaytac, and LB International all support Turkey’s genocide denial agenda. Their clients receiving letters include PepsiCo, TIME Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Chrysler, among others.
Coalition partners include four of the largest Armenian American organizations: the Armenian National Committee of America, Armenian Assembly of America, and the Armenian Youth Federation of both the Eastern and Western United States.
Photos: Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt – lobbying for Turkey’s Armenian Genocide denial policies
Source: horizonweekly.ca

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: Gephardt, Hastert, Turkish-denial-lobbyis

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