Ramadan Ceremony Includes Turkish Influence Group, Local Mayor, and US Congressman

Turk­ish media is report­ing that a Turk­ish-Amer­i­can influ­ence group and an NJ mayor’s office orga­nized a Ramadan iftar (fast-break­ing) that also was attend­ed by a US Con­gress­man. Accord­ing to the TRT Haber report:

May 4, 2021 The iftar din­ner in Pater­son, New Jer­sey, a city with one of the largest pop­u­la­tions of Turks in the Unit­ed States, brought togeth­er dif­fer­ent seg­ments of soci­ety. The event, orga­nized joint­ly by the Turk­ish Amer­i­can Steer­ing Com­mit­tee (TASC), one of the umbrel­la orga­ni­za­tions of the Turk­ish com­mu­ni­ty oper­at­ing in the Unit­ed States, and the Pater­son City Mayor’s Office took place under the iftar tents set up in the court­yard of the his­toric town hall. Turk­ish Ambas­sador to Wash­ing­ton Hasan Murat Mer­can, New Jer­sey Con­gress­man Bill Pascrell, Pater­son May­or Andre Sayegh and oth­er promi­nent local lead­ers, as well as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of dif­fer­ent nation­al­i­ties and eth­nic groups liv­ing in the New York and New Jer­sey area attend­ed the fast-break­ing cer­e­mo­ny.  [Trans­lat­ed by Google Trans­late with edits]

Read the rest here.

The Turk­ish Amer­i­can Nation­al Steer­ing Com­mit­tee (TASC) is strong­ly tied to Turk­ish Pres­i­dent 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.

Pre­vi­ous GIOR report­ing on TASC had included:

• In May 2021, we report­ed that Gunay Evinch was protest­ing Pres­i­dent Joe Biden’s recog­ni­tion of the Armen­ian Genocide.

• In April 2021, we report­ed that TASC met with the heads of US Islamist orga­ni­za­tions and the Turk­ish Ambas­sador to the Unit­ed States.

• In March 2021, we report­ed that TASC want­ed to con­tribute to US-Turk­ish rela­tions by dis­trib­ut­ing food aid through US politicians.