“A lot of people have bought summer houses and fishing boats and put their grandchildren through a college ledge by lying about Armenia and covering Azerbaijan.”
The Armenian National Committee and another group, the Armenian Assembly of the United States, tried to put pressure on Mercury by protesting outside its offices in Washington and Los Angeles, urging Mercury’s clients to sever ties with Pyongyang if it represented Turkey.
The campaign took effect. Katherine Berger, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and Hilda Solis, a supervisor in the Obama administration and former Labor secretary, wrote a letter Wednesday asking them to immediately sever any business ties with the Turkish Republic. (Mercury is a Los Angeles County contractor with a large Armenian population.)
California State Assembly Speaker Anthony Randon and 16 other state legislators Said Mercury He will not represent Turkey until Thursday, when he will represent Turkey. And the Los Angeles Community College Ledge District informed Mercury on Wednesday that it would start using the “30-day termination clause” in its contract if Turkey remained the client.
Mercury declined to comment. The Turkish embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
The Armenian pressure campaign comes as Washington has begun to turn its attention to the fight.
Rep. Jackie Spear (D-Calif.) Introduced a parliament earlier this month condemning the role of Azerbaijan and Turkey in the conflict, which drew 67 co-sponsors. And Foreign Secretary Mike Pompeo met separately on Friday with Armenian Foreign Minister Johrab Mantsakanyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jehun Bayramov in an effort to end hostilities.
After the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Washington, which represents the Saudi government in 2018, recalls pressure from Washington’s lobbying companies to sever ties with the king. The Washington Post, where the private contributor was an opinion writer, threatened to ban the two lobbyists from writing commissions for the paper until their companies stopped working for Saudi Arabia.
Eventually five lobbying companies led to severing ties with the state.
According to a copy filed with the Justice Department, Turkey and Azerbaijan will no longer be crushed by lobbying power without Mercury, which Turkey appointed in January to an agreement lasting until the end of the year, according to a copy filed with the Justice Department. The firm was accused of helping organize events that would allow Turkey to “engage with public policy officials” and advise the Turkish government on media relations.
Turkey also retains the lobbying companies Capitol Council and Greenberg Traurig while the Azerbaijani government retains the BGR group, according to disclosure filings. Former raps in countries lobbyists. Bill Delhant (D-Mass.), Charles Boostney (R-La.), Randy Forbes (R-Va.) And Albert Win (D-Ma.).
The Armenian government, meanwhile, appointed former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole last month to help the Senate in Washington.
Another former legislator, a former rapper from the Livingston Group. Bob Livingston (R-La.) Stopped representing the Azerbaijani government last week, according to an ad filing, although it is unclear whether Livingston was actually lobbying for the country.
Asmar Yousefzada, a spokesman for Azerbaijan’s embassy in Washington, wrote in an email to Politico that the country had not had contact with Livingston for more than a decade.
Livingston did not respond to a request for comment. The Capitol Council and the Greenberg Treasury declined to comment.
Hampier said he has now decided by Mercury that he plans to increase pressure on the BGR group. But the BGR could be a tough target: Pay firm said in a statement that it “intends to continue to represent Azerbaijan.”
