Islamists and Turkish Influence Groups Sponsored New York Erdoğan Speech

The  GIOR recent­ly report­ed that Turk­ish Pres­i­dent Erdoğan had giv­en a speech about grow­ing Islam­o­pho­bia in the West at a con­fer­ence orga­nized by the Turk­ish Amer­i­can Nation­al Steer­ing Com­mit­tee (TASC). The GIOR has found addi­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions involved with the con­fer­ence which were not includ­ed in the orig­i­nal report­ing. The fol­low­ing orga­ni­za­tion­al logos can be found in TASC’s Insta­gram post about the speech:

• MÜSİAD USA, the US branch of the Turk­ish Islamist businessman’s group, MÜSİAD. As GIOR has report­ed, MÜSİAD USA’s pres­i­dent Murat Guzel is also a TASC board member.

• ICMG USA, the US branch of the Turk­ish Islamist Mil­lî Görüş.

• Ameri­ka Ülkü Ocak­ları, the US branch of the Ide­al­ist Hearths or Gray Wolves, a Turk­ish ultra­na­tion­al­ist youth and street move­ment con­nect­ed the coali­tion part­ner of Erdoğan’s AKP.

• Cihan­nü­ma, an asso­ci­a­tion that has host­ed Hamas lead­ers, includ­ing Khaled Meshaal.

• The Pres­i­den­cy for Turks Abroad and Relat­ed Com­mu­ni­ties (Turk­ish: Yurt­dışı Türkler ve Akra­ba Toplu­luk­lar Başkan­lığı; YTB), a part of the Turk­ish Min­istry of Cul­ture and Tourism.

• The Yunus Emre Insti­tute, a Turk­ish pub­lic insti­tute that holds Turk­ish cours­es and cultural/art activ­i­ties to pro­mote Turkey abroad.

The Turk­ish Amer­i­can Nation­al Steer­ing Com­mit­tee (TASC) is strong­ly tied to Erdoğan:

• TASC co-chair Halil Mut­lu is Erdoğan’s cousin.

• TASC co-chair Gunay Evinch is a prin­ci­pal of Saltz­man & Evinch, a law firm retained by Turkey and reg­is­tered as a for­eign agent of Turkey in 2020.

• TASC’s for­mer trea­sur­er, Murat Guzel, detailed his US polit­i­cal activ­i­ties in e‑mails to Erdoğan fam­i­ly members.