Levent Kenez/Stockholm

According to an indictment unsealed on September 26, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is accused of secretly soliciting and accepting gifts and illegal campaign donations from Turkish businesspeople close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and officials from the Turkish government, dating back to 2014, when he served as borough president of Brooklyn. The indictment alleges that in exchange for these bribes, Adams not only benefited personally but also adjusted his political stance on issues concerning Turkish government opponents and Armenians, as instructed by those who influenced him.

The indictment against Mayor Adams was reported differently in the Turkish and American media. In Turkey, the charges have been framed as relatively common forms of corruption, including free upgrades on Turkish Airlines flights, stays in luxury hotels in İstanbul and the approval of Turkish House — a consular building opposite the United Nations — without a fire inspection. These types of bribes are minor or ordinary offenses by Turkish standards. However, the pro-opposition Turkish media has put greater emphasis on the involvement of Turkish diplomats and government officials in these crimes.

American media has taken a much more serious tone, highlighting the potential legal consequences Adams faces. The charges include wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and bribery, which is punishable by up to 10 years. Additionally, Adams is accused of soliciting illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals in two separate counts based on allegations from 2021 and 2023, each punishable by up to five years in prison. Finally, the indictment includes a conspiracy charge, which could result in up to five years’ imprisonment.

In the coverage from both countries’ media, there is insufficient emphasis on the political demands by the Turkish government in exchange for the bribes accepted by Adams.

According to the indictment, the Erdogan government believed that Adams might one day be president of the United States and hoped to gain influence with him, part of a plan that included potential interference in future US elections.

In return for travel benefits provided or arranged by a Turkish official in 2015 and 2016, Adams granted a political request from this official, according to the indictment.

The first demand from the Erdogan government as appeared in the indictment was that Adams cease his association with the Gülen movement, a group critical of Erdogan.

Prior to a 2015 trip to Turkey — funded by various entities, including the Turkish Consulate General, Turkish Airlines and three municipalities in Turkey — Adams had maintained a relationship with a Turkish community center in Brooklyn. The community center, which the indictment does not name, is widely recognized, as reported in the Turkish media, as being affiliated with the Gülen movement, inspired by cleric Fethullah Gülen, who is now residing in Pennsylvania.

In 2016 the Turkish official informed Adams that the community center was affiliated with a political movement hostile to the Turkish government. The official warned that if Adams wanted to continue receiving support from the government, he could no longer associate with the community center. Adams acquiesced to this demand, the indictment states.

This request is hardly surprising given the fact that in 2018, businessman Kamil Ekim Alptekin, a Turkish government operative, was indicted by US federal prosecutors for attempting to surveil opponents of Erdogan in Washington, D.C. His covert activities were exposed during the trial of his associate, Bijan Rafiekian, who was convicted of acting as an undisclosed agent of the Turkish government in the US.

The scheme involved using the Flynn Intel Group, founded by Rafiekian and then-US president Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, for the conduct of research and lobbying against the Gülen movement, aiming to influence US politicians and public opinion. During Rafiekian’s trial, on July 17, 2019, Brian McCauley, a former deputy assistant director of the FBI, testified that Alptekin requested that he plant incriminating evidence against the Gülen movement and monitor Erdogan critics in the D.C. area.

In 2019 former Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu was allegedly involved in a scandal in which Flynn and his son were to be paid as much as $15 million to hand over Fethullah Gülen to the Turkish government. This proposal was discussed among those with knowledge of the conversations Flynn had with Turkish representatives, including Çavuşoğlu and Erdogan’s son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, during a reported meeting in September 2017 in New York City. Former CIA director James Woolsey, who was also present at the meeting, described the proposal as “a covert step in the dead of night to whisk this guy away.”

Moreover it’s no secret that Erdogan frequently created crises to negotiate with the US due to a corruption scandal involving his family members, attempting to have a case involving Halkbank remain in limbo or to be resolved in a way that would least affect him. So far, he cannot be said to have succeeded in this regard.

According to the indictment, between 2012 and 2016, prosecutors alleged that Turkish state-owned Halkbank and its officers, agents and co-conspirators directly and indirectly used money service businesses and front companies in Iran, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere to violate and evade prohibitions against Iran’s access to the US financial system, restrictions on the use of proceeds from Iranian oil and gas sales and restrictions on the supply of gold to the Iranian government and Iranian entities and persons.

The indictment states that Halkbank knowingly facilitated the scheme, participated in the design of fraudulent transactions intended to deceive US regulators and foreign banks and lied to US regulators about its involvement.

Political observers are not surprised that the Erdogan government would choose to invest in Adams and offer bribes to further its interests. This strategic maneuvering reflects a calculated effort by Erdogan to gain influence and secure favorable positions within US political circles

Finally, another political allegation against Adams involves changing his position regarding Armenians. According to the indictment, on April 21, 2022 the Turkish official messaged an Adams staffer, noting that Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day was approaching and repeatedly requested assurances that Adams would not make any statement regarding it. The Adams staffer confirmed that Adams would not issue a statement, and Adams ultimately did not make such a statement.

Text of the indictment against Adams:

Turkish gov’t leveraged bribes to New York mayor to undermine Erdogan’s opponents