Turkey's situation in the United States

It seems that the lobbying companies in this country have for years been creating a "stripping" Turkey profession.

Aside from this, Turkish officials who have been struggling to prevent "genocide" bill, have missed a number of opportunities because they did not focus on the weak spots of the U.S. Congress' code.

What is more... According to this book, working with former republican Congress member Bob Livingston’s lobbying company was the reason for the rejection of the Turkish officials' appointment proposals after the Democrats took the majority in the House of Representatives two years ago. And here we were thinking that this decision was someone else's fault.

We can recall a concrete example of just such thinking:

Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the chairwoman of the House of Representatives, refused a request for an appointment from Turkey's current president, Abdullah Gul, while he was in the post of foreign minister.

Apparently, Pelosi later did the same to our former Washington Ambassador Sukru Elekdag, currently a deputy in Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party, and an accompanying delegation of deputies. In response to the situation, Elekdag felt the need to say that "We have lost the ground we had previously gained."

Elekdag is right. If we had worked with the right lobbying companies at the right time, our officials would not have encountered such painful reactions.

There is no reason to be surprised by this situation, if we continue to fail to understand that things don’t move forward by simply pouring funds into lobbyist and ex-members of Congress in Washington.

Hurriyet daily published article saying  "The Armenian genocide problem would come before us (mostly) as a compensation issue," in June 10, in 2003, after heeding a warning by Ercument Kilic.

The subject was this: Lawyer Dr. Varteks Yeghiayan, defended and won a  life insurance compensation payment case for Martin Maroutian, who was once an Ottoman Empire citizen. What is more, he also gained approval to launch a similar lawsuit "on behalf of the other Armenians who faced genocide".

And we said that unless this process is blocked, those insurance companies forced to make huge payouts, would seek compensation from Turkey.

As a matter of fact, a Los Angeles Court ordered "New York Life" insurance company to pay compensation worth $20 million on Feb. 20, 2004. French insurer, Axa, who also bought Turkey’s Oyakbank, followed New York Life in paying compensation. What this means is that while Turkey acts to boost ties with Armenia the diaspora continues with its lobbying. It would be ridiculous to think that they would end their mission.

As a matter of fact, the diaspora is now lobbying to "commute" the sentence of Hampig Sassuonian, who was charged with the murder of Turkey’s Consul General Kemal Arikan in Los Angeles. We should not seek to place blame elsewhere if we have abandoned him.