This Is How Turkey Quietly Influences Americans

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Turkey’s ruling party has spent $6.2 million establishing a permanent presence in Washington—run by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s cousin. Its representatives have gained access to senior American officials, journalists, activists, and media figures, but its government filings reveal almost nothing about what was discussed.

In this episode of EylON the Record, Eylon Levy speaks with OSINT investigator Eitan Fischberger about the AKP’s Washington headquarters, the extraordinary range of figures its representative Halil Mutlu has met, and what Turkey may be seeking from its expanding influence operation. As Ankara’s ambitions increasingly clash with the interests of Israel and the United States, the question is not whether Turkey is trying to shape American policy and public opinion—but how, and toward what end.

In this episode, we discuss:

- How Erdoğan’s cousin became the AKP’s representative in Washington and gained access to senior members of Congress, government committees, journalists, and podcasters
- The reported meetings with Mehdi Hasan, CAIR, Code Pink, John Kiriakou, and Tucker Carlson’s business partner
- Why FARA filings can disclose who foreign agents meet while revealing almost nothing about what they are trying to accomplish
- Turkey’s efforts to regain access to the F-35 program, weaken support for Israel and the Kurds, rehabilitate Erdoğan’s image, and establish itself as the Middle East’s dominant regional power

This is about more than lobbying. Turkey remains a NATO member while maintaining close relations with Russia, supporting Hamas, confronting Israel, and pursuing an increasingly assertive regional agenda. If Ankara can shape how Americans understand the Middle East while concealing the purpose of its political outreach, it can advance that agenda with far less scrutiny.

🎯 Key moment:
“If everyone is focusing on Israel, then nobody’s focusing on Turkey. And then Turkey can continue to do what it’s doing.”

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EylON the Record is a podcast about Israel, the global information war, and the battle between democratic societies and authoritarian or extremist movements — told through in-depth conversations with people shaping events on the front lines.

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