Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Jan. 18 that he met with incoming U.S. National Security Advisor, retired Gen. Michael Flynn, and other officials in Washington.
Çavuşoğlu tweeted he had a “working breakfast” with Flynn but it was not immediately clear who else was in attendance.
He said he hopes relations between Ankara and Washington would gain momentum with the new U.S. administration.
Expected to be on Çavuşoğlu’s agenda while in Washington is the extradition of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom the Turkish government accuses of being the mastermind behind a group of people mainly from the Turkish military that sought to overthrow the government on July 15, 2016 in an attempted coup.
Ankara has said Gülen’s network was behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the government through its infiltration in Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
Flynn on Nov. 8, 2016, the day of the U.S. presidential election, wrote in a piece for the Hill newspaper that the U.S. should not provide a safe haven for Gülen.
“The forces of radical Islam derive their ideology from radical clerics like Gülen, who is running a scam. We should not provide him safe haven,” Flynn wrote.
Trump adviser linked to Turkish lobbying
A company tied to Erdogan’s government hired retired general Michael Flynn’s lobbying firm.
Donald Trump wants to forbid his officials from lobbying for foreign governments, but one of his top national security advisers is being paid by a close ally of Turkey’s president.
Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a vice chair of the Trump transition who is in the running for a top national security post in the new administration, runs a consulting firm that is lobbying for Turkish interests, an associate told POLITICO. Asked if Flynn’s firm was hired because of the general’s closeness to Trump, the associate, Robert Kelley, said, “I hope so.”
Kelley told POLITICO that the client, a Dutch consulting firm called Inovo BV, was founded by Kamil Ekim Alptekin. Alptekin is chairman of the Turkish-American Business Council, known as TAIK, an arm of the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey, whose members are chosen by the country’s general assembly and economic minister. In that role, Alptekin was involved in organizing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington earlier this year.
The Turkish government’s connection to Flynn’s client was first reported by the Daily Caller.
A lobbying registration posted Sept. 30 said that Kelley, a former chief counsel to the House National Security Subcommittee, would lobby on bills funding the departments of State and Defense.
“We’re going to keep them informed of U.S. foreign and domestic policy,” Kelley said in a phone interview. “They want to keep posted on what we all want to be informed of: the present situation, the transition between President Obama and President-Elect Trump.”
Kelley said he didn’t know if the client presented a conflict of interest. A spokesman for Flynn said he was too busy to answer questions. The Trump transition didn’t answer a request for comment.
Source:http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/donald-trump-turkey-lobbying-231354