So much for austerity: Erdoğan visits $5 million AKP building
AKP President Erdoğan, while in the U.S. for the NATO Summit, visited the representative office building his party purchased for approximately $5 million.
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AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited the building purchased by the AKP to serve as its U.S. Representative Office on Thursday evening (July 11), following a press conference held after the NATO Summit.
The building is located on 16th Street, one of Washington's busy thoroughfares.
Due to Erdoğan's visit, 16th Street, where the building is located, was closed to traffic for a short time. Municipal buses passing through the street were unable to move for a while.
According to a report by Ezel Şahinkaya from VOA Turkish, Erdoğan's cousin, Halil Mutlu, is listed in the records as the AKP Washington Representative.
The AKP U.S. Representative Office is required to submit a report to the U.S. Department of Justice every six months under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to provide information regarding its expenditures and activities.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) is a law that oversees the activities within the U.S. of individuals and institutions that have connections to a foreign country or party.
Other organizations that provide information on their activities related to Turkey under FARA include the Republican People's Party (CHP), which has a representative office in Washington, the TÜRKEN Foundation, established by TÜRGEV and the Ensar Foundation, and TRT.
AKP PAID 4 MILLION 888 THOUSAND 737 DOLLARS FOR THE BUILDING
According to the report submitted by the AKP U.S. Representative Office to the U.S. Department of Justice on June 29, 2024, the representative office made a payment of 4 million 888 thousand 737 dollars to a company named Teranova for the building on April 3, 2024.
The same report, which bears the signature of AKP U.S. Representative Halil Mutlu, also states that the representative office paid 100 thousand dollars to Teranova for a deposit on January 5, 2024.
When the building's address is searched through the Washington D.C. tax payment system, information is retrieved showing the AKP U.S. Representative Office as the owner of the building.
In the municipality's system, it is stated that the building located at 2460 16th Street in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood had a value of 6 million 324 thousand 830 dollars in 2024.
QUESTIONS REMAIN UNANSWERED
An official from the AKP U.S. Representative Office left questions about the building on 16th Street unanswered. A request for information on the subject was also made to the Turkish Embassy in Washington, but no response has been received yet.
On the AKP's website, the address of the representative office is listed as 1621 New Hampshire Avenue in Washington.
In FARA reports, however, the registered address of the representative office is stated as 300 New Jersey Avenue NW, Suite 900. When the address is searched on Google Maps, it is seen that a shared office building one block away from the U.S. Congress is located at this address.
According to the report submitted by the AKP U.S. Representative Office to the U.S. Department of Justice under FARA on June 30, 2023, the representative office paid 4 million 55 thousand dollars to The Fund for American Studies on May 17, 2023, to purchase the building located on New Hampshire Avenue.
According to official records, when the building's address is searched on July 12, 2024, it is seen that the AKP U.S. Representative Office is registered as the owner of the building.