Turkish PAC Texas Raised 55K in 2011-2012 Election Cycle

"TurkishPAC has the main goal of protecting the Turkish heritage against several American ethnic organizations with historical enmity toward Turks and the Turkish Republic that are making concerted efforts to defame and otherwise insult Turkish Heritage through distorting historical facts. As a secondary goal we participate in providing political assistance to Turkish Americans in helping resolve business and bilateral cooperation Issues.

This report summarizes the goals and objectives, activities, and financial status (income and expenses) of the TurkishPAC during the 112th Congressional Election Cycle that covered the period starting from January 1, 2011 to December 31 2012.

Section 2.0 of this report provides a summary of the background, goals, and objectives of the TurkishPAC as summarized in its articles of incorporation and the bylaws that were established in 2006, when TurkishPAC was registered with the Texas Secretary of State (Texas SOS).

Section 3.0 provides a brief report on the educational and political activities performed by TurkishPAC during the 2011 - 2012 Election Cycle. During this period, TurkishPAC coordinated its activities with four other Turkish Political Action Committees established in different regions of the U.S.A.

Financial donations TurkishPAC received from Turkish Americans and friends of Turkiye and the resulting contributions made to the local and Congressional politicians during the 112th Congressional election cycle and the TurkishPAC operational expenses are summarized in Section4.0. TurkishPAC is an all-volunteer organization and 94% of all donations made to TurkishPAC were paid out as political contributions.   6% Operational expenses were paid to accountants to prepare and file the legally required FEC and IRS reports.

Section 5.0 provides a summary of our plans for the 113th Congressional Election Cycle. This election cycle will be very important for Turkish Americans because it will be the last cycle before 2015 when the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) and related organizations are making strong efforts to defame Turkish Heritage by passing Congressional and Senate resolutions that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the so –called Armenian Genocide.
TurkishPAC is issuing this report in order to provide our membership and donors with a high-level of transparency and a full disclosure of our operations.

TurkishPAC Background, Goals, and Objectives
TurkishPAC was established by a group of Turkish Americans as a Nonprofit Texas Corporation and registered with the Texas Secretary of State (Texas SOS) on October 30, 2006. This was followed by registration with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in 2007. The U.S.A law requires PACs to file quarterly financial reports with the FEC; and in an election year, two additional reports, one 15 days before and another 15 days after a general election; providing lists of our major financial contributors and the contributions made to political candidates.

TurkishPAC is established for the purpose of organizing the voting potential of Americans of Turkish origin and friends of Turkiye in order to defend Turkish Heritage against slanderous campaigns carried out by several ethnic groups in the USA, that are not friendly to the people, heritage and history of Turkiye. The Corporation is, therefore, organized for the following purposes:

a. To formulate and state our common goals and principles regarding issues on defending the Turkish Heritage.

b. To promote and propagate our goals and principles, organize social activities such as educational seminars, discussion panels, and training courses; prepare brochures, handouts, posters; write articles, letters, editorials, etc.

c. Identify and nominate Turkish Americans or their friends and supporters (our nominees) for local (City, Council, Mayor), State (The Capitol, Governor) and Federal (Congressional, Senate, and Presidential) representation purposes.

d. To form political interest groups that would tap into the voting potential; unite voters under our common goals and principles; and organize them at the county, state, regional and Federal levels to support the campaigning efforts of our nominees.

e. To identify non-Turkish-American incumbent officials and candidates for public office who may be persuaded to support our goals and principles; to reach other officials and explain to them our goals and principles?

f. To organize fund-raising activities to support the election campaigns of our nominees and the election/re-election campaigns of other officials who support our causes.

TurkishPAC does not concern itself with the political issues that are inherent to the internal and/or international political operations of the USA or Turkish Governments, otherwise not related to the defense of the Turkish Heritage.
 

Summary of TurkishPAC 2011-2012 Election Cycle Achievements
TurkishPAC, established in 2006, is the first Turkish American political action organization in the USA. Its original goal was to be politically active in the entire United States. In later years, it was joined by four other political action committees with similar political action goals:

• Turkish Coalition New Jersey PAC (TC-NJ PAC)
• Turkish Coalition California PAC (TC-CAL PAC)
• Turkish Coalition Midwest PAC (TC-Midwest PAC) in Indiana
• Turkish Coalition USA PAC (TC-USA PAC) Washington.

Since 2007, TurkishPAC has been coordinating its political actions with the above national PACs. Because of being located in the nation’s capitol, and financially and organizationally well endowed, TC-USA PAC in Washington DC has been acting as an Umbrella organization, providing valuable administrative and legal support to all other USA PAC organizations. As the other regional PACs were formed, TurkishPAC concentrated its action more in states located in the Southwest region.

During the 2011-2012 Election Cycle, TurkishPAC, in concert and active participation with the other Turkish PACs, has been successful in:
• Providing assistance to congressional representatives in helping solve Turkish American Business Issues
• Organizing letter-writing campaigns in support of Turkish participation in the Global Turkish Issues. Turkish PACs in cooperation with other local Turkish and Azeri organizations participated in the establishment of a Capwitz-based web site that organizes web-based letter-writing campaigns on political issues concerning the Turkish American and Azeri Heritage.

• We have placed 103 Turkish American Interns on Capitol Hill offices since 2007.
• We have obtained more positive statements in the Congressional Record than ever before.
• We have received more positive “Dear Colleagues” letters from incumbent politicians than ever before.
• We reduced the number of Congressional Representatives who cosponsored Armenian Genocide Resolutions from a high of 224 to only 92 this year (in an election year!!).
•  2012 Election Cycle was the first one during which none of the presidential candidates endorsed or made supporting statements endorsing the so-called Armenian Genocide claims.
• A Congressional Turkish Caucus was established under the leadership of the TC-USA PAC; our umbrella organization in Washington D.C., The initial Caucus membership in 2006 was 62. With local grassroots and combined Washington D.C. efforts of the five Turkish Political Action Committees, Caucus membership increased to 156 members as of October 9, 2012. The current Caucus is made of 89 Republican and 67 Democrat congressional representatives, including 21 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, 5   Hispanic American congressmen, and the only Native American serving in the Congress.

Texas has the largest number with 17 out of its total 32 representatives as members of the Turkish Caucus.
• This year we held two fundraising campaigns. While we were not able to reach our goal of $100,000, with thanks to matching contributions received from several of our generous donors, we were able to reach to a level above $55,000 that enabled us to contribute to the election campaigns of all Caucus members in Texas and most in the surrounding Southwestern States.

Income and Expenses
Income
During the 2011-2012 election cycle, TurkishPAC were able to raise more than $55,000 through multiple fundraising events.  We had close to 60 donors contributing from $10 to $10,000.  We had contributors challenging us to raise money in order to provide matching funds.  Setting aside the matching contributions, the average donation was about $400.  The highest donation amount excluding the matching contributions was $4,000.
 
Political Contributions
During the 2011-2012 election cycle, TurkishPAC donated a record setting $50,000 to 41 candidates.  More than half of our donations went to candidates from Texas.  All of our candidates except one were successful in their election bids.

Operating Expenses
TurkishPAC spent about 6% of the money raised on its operating expenses.  Roughly 2/3rd of our operating expenses consisted of various bank fees, FEC reporting, Franchise tax and web hosting.
 
Plans for 2014 Election Cycle activities
In the 113th Congressional Election Cycle, TurkishPACs have the goal of informing the American Public and its representatives on our side of the story and defending the Turkish Heritage concerning the following key Turkish issues:

a) The Armenian Genocide claims: 113th Congressional Election Cycle concluding in November 2014 will be very important for Turkish Americans because it will be the last cycle before April 25, 2015 when the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) and related organizations plan to make strong efforts to defame Turkish Heritage by passing Congressional and Senate resolutions that commemorate the 100th anniversary of their false accusations that the Ottoman Turks committed genocide on their Armenian population.

a) The Armenian occupation of the Western Azerbaijani Region of Karabakh and inhuman acts committed by Armenia on the local Azeri population in 1993. TurkishPACs will continue providing support to the Azeri Americans in their rightful struggle to have their Armenian occupied territories returned and the mass killings of Azeri population in the occupied territories recognized internationally as genocide.

b) Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) are being continuously challenged about the status of TRNC by the ethnic Greek American lobbying organizations such as the American Hellenic Institutes (AHI).  TurkishPACs will continue to provide support to Turkey and the TRNC in their rightful efforts to create a united Cyprus Republic that protects the existence and rights of its Turkish population in accordance with the terms of the 1960 London Treaty of Guarantee signed between Greece and Turkey with UK, U.S.A. and the U.N, as the guarantors. If such a union is not possible in a reasonable time frame, TurkishPACs will support the continued independence or union of TRNC with Turkey.

c)  PKK is continuing with their terrorist acts in Turkey to publicize their illegal goal of establishing an independent Kurdish state on Turkish soil. Great majority of Turkish citizens of Kurdish ancestry or relation are living scattered on Turkish soil in peace and harmony, enjoying the same rights and freedoms as all other Turks. PKK sympathizers constitute only a very small percentage of the Turkish population. Terrorist PKK actions resulted in the death of near forty thousand Turkish citizens, many of Kurdish origin, since 1982.  While the U.S.A. officially recognizes PKK as a terrorist organization, several American ethnic groups and sympathizers of PKK who are providing political support to PKK. TurkishPAC is committed to oppose all US political efforts to provide support to PKK.

d) Turkish PAC is also committed to working with other Turkish American political and civil organizations to promote continuing friendly relations between Turkey and the U.S.A.; by providing assistance to politicians and congressional representatives in helping understand and solve Turkish-American cooperation and business Issues.

Being effective on the above-listed issues requires strong financial and political support from Turkish Americans and friends who are USA residents or citizens. For this purpose, TurkishPAC plans to do the following:

i. Organize two TurkishPAC fundraising campaigns each year (generally, one in March and the other in October). Promote and publicize our causes to Turkish Americans and friends who are US residents or citizens. Back up these campaigns with personal letters sent to high potential contributors. Our goal is to collect more than $100,000 contributions made to TurkishPAC each year.

ii. Attend and/or positively respond to fundraiser campaigns organized by local representatives who are supporters or potential supporters of Turkish issues. Preference will be given to the Congressional Turkish Caucus members with emphasis on those who are members of the US Congress and Senate Foreign Relations committees.

iii. Expand TurkishPAC operations to other Texas cities (Austin, Corpus Christi regions) and other southwestern states (Florida, Georgia, Alabama, S. Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico).  The goal is to find and assign American Turkish Volunteers who live in election districts of representatives. We will do all possible to increase the number of congressional representatives who become members of the Turkish Caucus  to 268 or more, thereby eliminating the possibility of any anti Turkish resolution approved by the Congress in 2015.

iv. Organize and encourage Turkish Americans to participate in letter-writing campaigns to politicians on Turkish issues (see the above) using the Capwitz facility operated jointly by Turkic PACs.

v. Organize conferences and seminars given by historians, politicians, and other recognized authorities with expertise on issues listed above.

vi. Visit local offices of US representatives to talk and explain to them our positions on the American Turkish issues.

vii. Organize trips to Washington DC to visit our local representatives at work

viii. Participate in the local City and state representative elections, working towards getting Turkish Americans and other candidates with favorable opinion on Turkish issues get elected."