{"id":1464954,"date":"2022-05-05T11:29:43","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T15:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1464954"},"modified":"2022-05-05T11:29:47","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T15:29:47","slug":"dr-ozs-work-for-turkish-airlines-may-violate-federal-lobbying-law-advocacy-group-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dr-ozs-work-for-turkish-airlines-may-violate-federal-lobbying-law-advocacy-group-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Oz\u2019s Work For Turkish Airlines May Violate Federal Lobbying Law, Advocacy Group Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdr-ozs-work-for-turkish-airlines-may-violate-federal-lobbying-law-advocacy-group-claims%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1464954&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz may have violated federal law by failing to report a contract with Turkish Airlines, a complaint by an Armenian-American advocacy group alleges.<\/p>\n<p>Oz filmed several promotional videos with Turkish Airlines, a firm <a href=\"https:\/\/centreforaviation.com\/data\/profiles\/airline-groups\/turkish-airlines-group\">owned<\/a> in part by the Turkish government, in <a href=\"https:\/\/adage.com\/videos\/turkish-airlines-five-senses-with-dr-oz\/1597\">2018<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesstraveller.com\/business-travel\/2021\/01\/19\/turkish-airlines-launches-tk-extra-care-programme\/\">2021<\/a>. The videos should have been enough to require Oz to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), according to the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), but he did not do so.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDr. Oz indisputably serves as public relations counsel, publicity agent, information service employee, or political consultant for Turkish Airlines,\u201d ANCA writes to Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olson in a letter first reported on by the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/ANCA-letter-to-DoJ-FARA-Unit-May-3-2022.pdf\">New York Post<\/a>. \u201cDr. Oz offered advice to the passengers of Turkish Airlines as the airline flying to more countries than any other airline in the world, on healthy eating and exercises.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The letter also notes that \u201cTurkish Airlines has been a foreign principle since at least 1975 and as recently as 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">BREAKING: ANCA calls on Department of Justice to investigate <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrOz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DrOz<\/a> for violating Foreign Agent Registration Act.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDr. Oz clearly serves as a foreign agent on behalf of the foreign principal <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TurkishAirlines?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TurkishAirlines<\/a>.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nWPwY0z9g6\">https:\/\/t.co\/nWPwY0z9g6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 ANCA (@ANCA_DC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ANCA_DC\/status\/1522011696222588930?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 5, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Oz campaign denied any FARA violations in a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/05\/04\/dr-oz-accused-of-violating-foreign-agent-law-with-work-for-turkish-airlines\/\">statement<\/a> to the New York Post.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOther spokespeople for Turkish Airlines included Morgan Freeman and Ben Affleck. Like Dr. Oz, they were not required to register under FARA,\u201d spokeswoman Brittany Yanick said. \u201cThis political hit is ridiculous. Individuals and firms working to advance the bona fide commercial interests of a foreign business are not subject to FARA and not required to register. DOJ has repeatedly recognized this longstanding exemption under the law including in several recent advisory opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>FARA was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawfareblog.com\/justice-departments-new-unprecedented-use-foreign-agents-registration-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">passed<\/a> in 1938 due to concerns of Nazi activities in the United States. It \u201crequires certain agents of foreign principals who are engaged in political activities \u2026 to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/nsd-fara\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">according<\/a> to the Justice Department. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/04\/29\/rudy-giuliani-fara-ukraine-lobbying\/\">(RELATED: \u2018A Foreign Agent\u2019: Here\u2019s Why The Feds Raided Rudy Giuliani)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oz is not the first politically-involved Republican to be accused of a FARA violation related to the government of Turkey in recent years. Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2017\/03\/31\/heres-what-prompted-michael-flynn-to-register-as-an-agent-of-turkey\/\">registered<\/a> under the law in 2017 after his firm <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2017\/03\/15\/revealed-turkeys-plan-to-camouflage-its-lobbying-activities-in-the-us\/\">lobbied<\/a> on behalf of a Dutch energy company owned by a Turkish businessman. Bijan Rafiekian, an executive at Flynn\u2019s consulting firm, was found <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2019\/07\/23\/flynn-business-partner-guilty-turkey-lobbying\/\">guilty<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/03\/18\/bijan-rafiekian-turkey-michael-flynn-appeals-court\/\">violating<\/a> the law in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Born in Ohio, Oz has claimed to maintain dual citizenship to allow him to care for his elderly Turkish mother, who suffers from Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Oz has <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20220317022925\/https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/politics\/election\/mehmet-oz-dual-turkish-citizenship-pa-senate-race-20220316.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pledged<\/a> to give up his citizenship should he be elected to the U.S. Senate, as his chief opponent David McCormick and some experts have <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/elections\/oz-announces-major-decision-on-turkish-citizenship\/\">suggested<\/a> that maintaining it makes the candidate susceptible to foreign influence.<\/p>\n<p>Although he has denied political involvement in Turkey, a photograph of Oz voting in the 2018 Turkish election resurfaced in recent days. The photograph was initially posted to the Facebook <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/story.php?story_fbid=1739314366153445&#038;id=208881202530110&#038;m_entstream_source=timeline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">page<\/a> of the New York Turkish consulate, where Oz cast his ballot. A spokeswoman for the campaign <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/dr-ozs-vote-2018-turkish-election-renews-criticism\/story?id=84326742\">claimed<\/a> that Oz visited the consulate to discuss humanitarian work and was encouraged to vote while he was there. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/03\/04\/dr-oz-pennsylvania-david-mccormick-republican-senate\/\">(RELATED: Dr. Oz\u2019s Ties To Pharma, Tech Complicate Anti-Corporate Campaign Claims)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cDr. Oz has already said when elected to the Senate he would renounce his citizenship. There is no security issue whatsoever, and David McCormick knows that he has maintained his dual citizenship to make it easier to help care for his mother who has Alzheimer\u2019s and lives there,\u201d Yanick said.<\/p>\n<p>The 2018 Turkish presidential election was <a href=\"https:\/\/freedomhouse.org\/country\/turkey\/freedom-world\/2019\">marred<\/a> by a state of emergency, the exclusion of opposition media and \u201cintimidation, harassment, and attacks aimed at opposition candidates.\u201d This led international observers like Freedom House to <a href=\"https:\/\/freedomhouse.org\/country\/turkey\/freedom-world\/2019\">conclude<\/a> that the country\u2019s political process is \u201cnot free.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former President Donald Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/04\/09\/donald-trump-endorses-mehmet-oz-pennsylvania-senate\/\">endorsed<\/a> Oz in April, citing his perceived electability in an important swing state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz may have violated federal law by failing to report a contract with Turkish Airlines, a complaint by an Armenian-American advocacy group alleges.Oz filmed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":1481713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1464954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1464954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1481713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1464954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1464954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1464954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}