Exploring Civil Society and Lobbying in the United States

Today states are, in reality, aspiring toward civil society. In Turkey, the more people discover civil society, the more they ask for a better quality of democracy and equitable development in justice. These add to the country’s positive representation in the world community, as well as representing their interests more effectively.

Turkey has to deal with the Armenian lobby primarily in the U.S., but also in other countries. This is a well established fact that is not spoken about very often. Since this position leaves Turkey walking on eggshells, it is very hard to maneuver in such a highly emotional atmosphere. Moreover, its willpower is constantly being tested. This drives Turkey into taking more risks in this regard, and most of the time its efforts are not fruitful.

Since it is not an expert in dealing with the Armenian Lobby, Turkey is outsourcing this job to others. By doing so, it is sitting idle and clapping with one hand. On the other hand, Armenians do not outsource their lobbying efforts to others. They don’t sit idle and they exert pressure on elected representatives, thus making it harder for Turkey to maneuver. In Turkey, the enlightened élites have made us believe that if we put our money in the hands of lobbyists, they will take care of the job for us. What is the result? A perfect zero. This job is not being satisfactorily done by Turks who know only English as a second language, and who sit and laugh and don’t let other, more capable Turks take care of business. It follows that those people, who get hefty and porky salaries, don’t want others to be involved in this lobbying game, since that might endanger their opulent lifestyles. Thus they represent the more capable ones amongst us as monsters.

Thanks be to God that those people are not employed any more in our foreign ministry. As our state meets more with our civil society, a really fantastic thing is happening because of this synergy. During the last years, the number of academics, researchers, journalists, senators and business people who are visiting Turkey from the U.S. has been increasing exponentially. I frequently sit down with these people and talk with them.

The issue is this: We used to think that Turkey, being located in the Middle East and having a common border with the Arab World, was a strategic ally of the West during the Cold War years, which happened to also be famous for its foods, Raki [Turkish alcoholic drink] and Döner [Turkish delicacy, meat cooked by turning it around a fire]. We were wrong. Having a deep civilization, being much different from the Arabs, having a sophisticated culture, being developed and modern, but nevertheless being very hospitable and dynamic, we went with the West toward Israel. We never thought about ourselves as a singularity. We are now discovering ourselves and coming back to Turkey. Now, our main objective is to make our magnificent country known to others. In other words, we have to package and “market” Turkey.

During our visit to the United States last week, we went to Los Angeles after visiting Chicago. Our state minister, Zafer Caglayan, rightfully said that “it will take us dozens of visits in order to be able to market our country here.” It is indeed interesting that we have not done this before with a country that is considered The Empire of the known world. This becomes more problematic if we take into consideration that people from our country had long been established here and had paved the way for us in terms of marketing our country. Why haven’t we taken advantage of this?

We have to work very hard in order to make up for the time we have lost. We really worked in that direction during our visit. During our talks with the Turkish leaders of the Pacifica Institute, we learned that they had taken the initiative through the Turkish American Commerce Office and had organized a huge festival in order to make Turkey discoverable by Americans. They did this by organizing the week-long Anatolian Culture and Foods festival. They explained to us that they presented the foods and culture of five Anatolian cities and even built miniature cities for this purpose. Imagine doctoral students turning around with trays on their heads serving hot Simit [Turkish pastry] and Ottoman Sherbet to Americans attending the festival. The Turkish Consulate of Los Angeles, which is the representative of our country in the Western United States, had its share in the organization of the event.

If Turkey’s 50 governorates did this and only this, our image would reach the stars. Our tourism would prosper. As a matter of fact, why don’t we make this the goal of our lobbying effort in the United States? This is what the Turkish Consul General in Los Angeles told us. There is no gain to be attained from selling our cotton products to Americans. They might not even remember that. This was best expressed by a lady who was instrumental in organizing the above mentioned festival. The business woman told us that she didn’t hear the expression “I don’t want to visit Turkey now” from any of the attendees.

Several prayers were conducted daily in the miniature mosque during the festival. An Armenian citizen of Turkey was seen with tears in his eyes in a corner of the festival yard. He said that “when we lived there, we used to hear these prayers daily too.”