Unraveling the Influence of the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex and Turkey’s American Mercenary Warriors
The Washington Post's endorsement of the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, despite acknowledging Erdoğan's authoritarian rule, egregious human rights violations, and close ties with Russia, is deeply troubling.
The Turks will not use these air fighters to defend themselves as American laws mandate or counter Russia, but to harass Greece, a staunch U.S. ally, sustain their occupation of Northern Cyprus, an EU member state, and continue their aggressive policies in the Eastern Mediterranean and South Caucasus against the Kurds and the Armenians.
They will kill Kurds, Armenians, and Greeks as they did in the past and drop bombs on innocent Yazidi children and women.
However, the Washington Post editorial board members failed to address or acknowledge these significant concerns in their discussion.
There was also no mention that Turkey purchased Russian S-400 air missiles and plans to buy more. Deploying these missiles would put American and NATO pilots at risk.
The Washington Post has a history of omitting information or redirecting attention away from unfavorable events in Turkey to avoid painting a negative picture of the country.
In May 2022, The Washington Post featured an article discussing Turkish women wearing headscarves.
However, given the Turkish regime’s flagrant disregard for women’s rights and the alarming epidemic of violence against Turkish women, it seems futile to prioritize publishing an article solely focused on headscarves.
Dying to Divorce (2021), a British documentary directed by Chloe Fairweather, portrays women’s brutal treatment in Turkey. President Erdoğan tells his audiences, “You cannot put women and men on an equal footing,” and “that’s against nature.”
The Washington Post published yet another absurd article on April 7, 2023, which drew a parallel between Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the main opposition leader of Turkey, and Gandhi.
Kılıçdaroğlu falls far short of being compared to Gandhi. His audacious challenge to Erdoğan, urging the seizure of Greek islands and shameless declaration to emulate Ecevit’s actions in Cyprus within the Aegean region, highlight how far Kılıçdaroğlu falls from the ideals and principles embodied by Gandhi.
While alluding to human rights violations, the editorial board of The Washington Post failed to address them adequately. They briefly mentioned in the article Erdoğan's alarming human rights record, including his suppression of the media, persecution of political opponents, and manipulation of state institutions.
However, they did not provide concrete steps to address these violations. The suggested response of merely “speaking out” for Western values without taking meaningful action is insufficient. Acknowledging the need for concrete measures and plans to confront the trouble Erdoğan’s authorities cause is essential.
Nevertheless, there were additional problems with their stance.
Extolling democratic values while endorsing arming oppressive regimes is hypocritical. The Washington Post's commitment to its slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” is also questioned when its editors fail to disclose all the facts regarding Turkey to the American public.
Supplying the Turks with F-16s to appease them is a misguided idea. Among others, Hitler and Putin taught us that appeasement eventually fails. “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile—hoping it will eat him last,” said Winston Churchill.
“It is precisely because the Turks have never been held accountable for their criminal actions and aggression that they continue to threaten the security and sovereignty of their neighbors. It is high time for the West to wake up and take Ankara to task,”
said Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist unafraid to say the truth.
“Regrettably, Western leaders have tried to appease Erdoğan, thereby creating a monster,” Harout Sassounian wrote in “The California Courier.”
“The more the EU and the West appease, the more brazen and entrenched Erdoğan becomes, and the more insolent and dangerous he is for others,” Cengiz Aktar asserted in POLITICO on May 23, 2022.
William Mallinson, a former British diplomat, made a revealing discovery in the British National Archives—a statement by a British prime minister shedding light on Turkey’s responses to appeasement.
The prime minister said, “his experience of the Turks was that they pocketed whatever was offered and asked for more.” It is precisely what the Turks will do if they get the F-16s, take them and subsequently demand more.
Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official, traced America’s appeasement of Turkey and its adverse effects to 1974. In 1974, Henry Kissinger, a war criminal according to many accounts and responsible for three million civilian deaths, “green-lighted” the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
“No matter what their provocation, Turkish leaders now believe that Washington will defer to their size and throw any smaller country under the bus. Not only does the northern part of Cyprus, therefore, remain Europe’s last occupied territory, but Erdogan now believes force might win him possession of Greece’s Aegean islands,”
he wrote.
“It will take crippling sanctions on Turkey. . . and further U.S. deployments in the Eastern Mediterranean to right historical wrongs and deter new conflict,”
Rubin stressed. Henry Kissinger should apologize for serving Turkish imperialism, Washington Examiner.
Composed of intelligent and well-educated individuals, the editorial board of The Washington Post ought to know that their proposition to sell F-16s to Turkey amounts to appeasement—a policy known to be ineffective, eventually. Their rationale for supporting the war in Ukraine aligns with the Biden administration’s stance, rooted in the belief that appeasement is counterproductive. “If we let Putin take Ukraine, what’s next?” said Pentagon’s Press Secretary John Kirby.
So why would the editors of The Washington Post support appeasing Turkey?
It is especially troubling since they dismiss the significance of Sweden's exclusion from NATO, saying it is merely symbolic. NATO is integrating the Swedish armed forces into its military structures even without extending a formal security guarantee, they argued.
One way to find out is to “follow the money” approach that Senator Bernie Sanders often discusses.
Here, it is money from the Turkish government and the military industries in the United States, especially Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of F-16s.
Being one of the major defense contractors in the United States, Lockheed Martin has its in-house lobbying team devoted to promoting its interests. However, it also hires external lobbying firms to advance its agenda further and support arms sales. The BGR Group and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP are two of them.
Turkey is among “The Top Players in Foreign Agent Lobbying,” ranking in the top list with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, shows a study by writers from ProPublica and the Sunlight Foundation (Aug. 2009).
The government in Ankara “has consistently lavished millions each year on well-connected Washington lobbying firms,” reveals Luke Rosiak (Sept. 2009).
“An Ex-Leader in Congress is now Turkey’s Man,” wrote The New York Times (October 17, 2007). Ankara has paid former Representative Robert L. Livingston over $12 million to lobby against Armenian Genocide resolutions.
Prominent lobbyists and consultants represent the interests of the Turkish government in Washington, wrote the Washington Examiner on May 16, 2017. “Turkey’s Lobbyists Had Deep Access to Trump White House,” Courthouse revealed on October 22, 2019.
Here is How Jack Abramoff’s Old Lobbying Firm Became Turkey’s Biggest Defender, Mother Jones reported on November 7, 2019. Boom Times for Turkey’s Lobbyists in Trump’s Washington, Courthouse News, published in another report on July 5, 2023.
In September 2016, President Erdoğan’s business associate paid $530,000 to Mike Flynn, the disgraced former National Security Advisor of President Trump, to secure lobbying services for the Turkish government.
Following are a few lobby firms and think tanks that Turkey paid to lie about its record and to advance its interests in the United States:
The Gephardt Group, APCO, Amsterdam Partners, Greenberg Traurig, Capitol Counsel, Mercury, Madison Group, Mcbee Signal, Jim Arnold, and MediaFix. Ankara was paying these firms $5 million annually. The Ballard Partners and the Livingston Group also worked for the Turkish government.
Ankara also gave money to the following think tanks:
Brookings Institution
The Center for Strategic & International Studies
The Center of American Progress
The German Marshall Fund
These lobby firms and think tanks, Turkey’s American mercenary warriors, exaggerated Turkey’s strategic value and told us that ignoring Turkey’s aggression and human rights violations was okay. They beautified Turkey’s history and funded pseudo-scholars to teach American college students that the Armenian Genocide never happened.
Examining the scope of interactions and the influence these groups exert on The Washington Post’s editorial board and journalists is crucial.
The relationships, investments, and business transactions that may connect The Washington Post’ s owner and personnel with Lockheed Martin are equally significant.
“Turkey has aligned itself with Russia, and we want to help them UPGRADE their fighter jets!?” wrote one Washington Post commentator. “That seems impossibly unwise and short-sighted. But as always, the post editorial board favors revenues over sanity,” they stressed.
“The good old American Military Industrial Complex is talking again,” noted someone else.
They may both be right.
Many of our bureaucrats are more concerned with getting a lucrative job once they leave Washington, DC than serving their country honorably.
A closer look at how corrupt U.S. foreign policy bureaucrats interrelate with The Washington Post’s editorial board and journalists is imperative.
If The Washington Post truly embodied liberal values, independence, and a commitment to democracy and the rule of law as it claims, it would not have supported the sale of F-16s to Ankara's oppressive regime. Instead, it would have taken a leading role in opposing the arming of the Turkish aggressors.
Liberals uphold democracy, justice, and the rule of law everywhere. They stand against aggressors and human rights violators, declining to shield or hide their wrongful actions.
Maintaining a foreign policy that is consistent and devoid of double standards is of utmost importance for upholding the credibility of the United States. It would be highly inappropriate and an affront to the values we stand for, and the efforts and sacrifices made in the Ukraine conflict to provide F-16s to the Turkish regime.
Such an action would contradict the commitment of both Congress and President Biden to uphold democracy and international law. Additionally, it would betray America’s true allies in the eastern Mediterranean, as it would have detrimental implications for their security.
Moreover, it will send the wrong message that the Turks can coerce the United States and get away with it.