Pro-AKP Lobbying Group to Open US Branch

The head of an inter­na­tion­al Turk­ish lob­by­ing group for Pres­i­dent Erdoğan has announced the group is set­ting up a US branch. Accord­ing to a tweet from Kök­sal Kuş:

March 13, 2022: The first step to set up UID in Los Ange­les, Amer­i­ca, is on a good path.

[Trans­lat­ed by Google with edits]

Read the rest here.

As GIOR report­ed last year, Kuş has pre­vi­ous­ly been a mem­ber of the Gray Wolves, a Turk­ish ultra­na­tion­al­ist movement.

The Union of Inter­na­tion­al Democ­rats (UID; for­mer­ly known as the Union of Euro­pean Turk­ish Democ­rats) describes itself as a vol­un­tary NGO  found­ed in 2004 that oper­ates in sev­er­al Euro­pean coun­tries. Its aims include increas­ing Turks’ eco­nom­ic, polit­i­cal, and social activ­i­ties and “sis­ter com­mu­ni­ties” abroad with­out alien­at­ing their iden­ti­ties and val­ues. Its aims also include com­bat­ting Islam­o­pho­bia. Ger­man media has described the UID as a lob­by­ing group for Pres­i­dent Erdoğan and his AKP that empha­sizes Turk­ish val­ues and cus­toms. The Ger­man Office for the Pro­tec­tion of the Con­sti­tu­tion mon­i­tors the UID, describ­ing it as “nation­al­ist” and incom­pat­i­ble with Ger­many’s free demo­c­ra­t­ic order.