U.S. organisations give platforms for Turkey to portray global pandemic leadership

One of the United States’ biggest think tanks, the Atlantic Council, hosted Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in a live virtual conversation this week that amounted to little more than a public relations spot for the Turkish government. The Atlantic Council has received financial support from several Turkish state-institutions including the Turkey Army College and the Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ).

The hosts avoided difficult topics including Turkey’s poor record on human rights. Instead they gave Çavuşoğlu a platform to spin Ankara’s foreign policy in a purely positive light and an opportunity to place blame for international ruptures squarely on its erstwhile partners in Europe and the United States.

On the same day, the U.S. news outlet The Hill published an op-ed by Sasha Toperich, senior executive vice president of U.S.-based think tank the Transatlantic Leadership Network, arguing Turkey is a global leader in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic for sending test kits, masks and hazmat suits to 30 countries. The piece rightly praises Turkey for its efforts to aid countries hit hard by the pandemic.

However, the article’s obfuscation of Turkey’s many missteps and the use of the article by pro-government Turkish media to whitewash Ankara’s response has led some Turkey analysts to question whether the piece was paid propaganda, an allegation that Toperich categorically denies.

“It certainly looks like the Turkish government paid someone to write an op-ed in an American paper praising its coronavirus response so that it could turn around and have Turkish papers claim that Americans were praising its coronavirus response,” Nicholas Danforth, a visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, told Ahval.

“If that’s what happened it reveals yet again both the bankruptcy of Turkey’s pro-government press and also those U.S. papers that are willing to play along,” he said.

It is within the broader context of Turkey’s lobbying efforts that Danforth is critical of Toperich’s article. The Hill previously published a pro-Ankara op-ed by retired Lieutenant-General Michael Flynn, who was later revealed to be a paid lobbyist for Turkey, earning over half a million dollars.

Toperich told Ahval he had never been paid by any lobbying group for any op-ed he has written.

“I have not been paid by the Turkish government to write an op-ed, nor was I paid by Sisi’s government when I supported Egypt’s economic reform agenda to help elevate the well-beings of the great people of Egypt, articles that were apparently picked up by lobbying groups,” he said.

The problem with uncritical think-tank events like the Atlantic Council’s conversation with Çavuşoğlu and op-eds published in an influential U.S. media platforms and written by authors like Toperich whose affiliations include venerable U.S. institutions, in this case Johns Hopkins University, is that they are valuable to Turkey’s ongoing efforts to shape public opinion at home and abroad, whether that was the author’s intent or not.

Toperich is correct that following its first confirmed COVID-19 case Turkey did react quickly with some measures, including disinfection protocols for public transport and the closing of schools. On other measures, however, Ankara has received sustained criticism from health and economics experts, which Toperich makes no mention of.

“Ankara’s COVID-19 track record has been problematic to say the least, as one can even tell from the official statements of Turkey’s health minister, who has not shied away from adopting a self-critical tone when necessary,” Aykan Erdemir, the director of the Turkey Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Ahval.

“Similarly, there have been numerous critical pieces in Turkey’s pro-government media outlets, which is yet another recognition of Ankara’s policy shortcomings, even among pro-government circles. The Turkish interior minister’s attempt to resign following last weekend’s botched lockdown policy should leave no doubt that things are not as rosy as painted in this Hill piece,” he said.

The help Turkey has provided other nations is broadly positive, but it has also drawn criticism in specific cases. For example, The Turkish Medical Association chairman, Sinan Adıyaman, said exporting test kits to the United States jeopardised the health of the Turkish public and healthcare practitioners at a time when Turkey was struggling to contain its fast-growing outbreak.

To further bolster the image of Turkey’s beneficence, Toperich cites the praise from a high-level delegation of U.S. and UN officials in March for “what they characterised as Turkey’s hospitality toward Syrian refugees in the country and its seamless coordination of cross-border humanitarian assistance.”

Turkey does provide critical cross-border humanitarian access to the conflict ravaged Idlib province of Syria and hosts more refugees than any country in the world, but it also weaponises refugees to serve its foreign policy objectives. Just last month Turkey was manufacturing a refugee crisis by bussing Syria refugees to its border with Greece in a failed effort to force concessions from Europe.

“The reason I mentioned refugees is because they represent an added challenge to any country facing this pandemic,” Toperich told Ahval. “The focus of the article was not on political migration issues. When I decide to write an article on migration and refugee crises, I will readily address the EU, Iran, Russia, Syria, Turkey, and other relevant ‘players’ involved in the misery of the Syrian people.”

Responding to criticism of his op-ed, Toperich said: “The countries answering the call and providing for those in need deserve to be recognised. What we don’t need right now is meaningless, worthless ruminations from academics who sit safe in an ivory tower, attempting to bring down those taking action.”

“Now is the time for countries to come together, to build upon each other’s efforts to help the sick and hurting. I welcome all those who would join me in recognising such efforts throughout the world,” he concluded.

With millions of lives disrupted and threatened by the coronavirus everywhere it is worth noting all acts of generosity, but it is also worth highlighting how such acts can be used to whitewash the image of repressive authoritarians.