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The U.S. media in recent months published several articles covering New York City Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 controversial statements, foreign travels, and fundraising activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before becoming Mayor on January 1, 2022, the Daily News (NY) published an article on February 6, 2021 with the title: \u201cNYC mayoral candidate Eric Adams accepted foreign travel to countries with a history of corruption.\u201d The newspaper reported that \u201cBrooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has accepted thousands of dollars in travel and other perks from China, Turkey and Azerbaijan, three countries with a well-documented history of suppressing their citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adams acknowledged that he has traveled to Turkey eight times. In August 2015, the Turkish government paid thousands of dollars for then Brooklyn Borough President Adams to visit Turkey for six days where he signed a sister city agreement with Istanbul\u2019s \u00dcsk\u00fcdar district. The Turkish consulate paid up to $4,999 for his airfare, hotel stay and ground transportation, according to Adams\u2019 disclosure with the city\u2019s Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB). An entity called the World Tourism Foundation, which hosted Adams in Antalya, Turkey, was listed as paying up to $4,999 for travel expenses, the Daily News revealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2016, \u201cAzerbaijan\u2019s tourism ministry paid up to $4,999 for Adams to visit its capital Baku for four days, according to the borough president\u2019s COIB disclosure,\u201d the Daily News reported. \u201cI am honored to come to our sister city in Azerbaijan,\u201d Adams said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The New York City News Service disclosed that according to campaign funding records, \u201cdonations from individuals affiliated with organizations in the immigrant communities he wooed with these trips later went to the Adams mayoral campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In March 2018, just after forming his mayoral campaign committee, \u201cAdams attended a party celebrating Nowruz, the Persian New Year, at Baku Palace restaurant in Sheepshead Bay [NY],\u201d according to the NY City News Service. Adams told the cheering crowd of Azeris: \u201cAfter I retire from government, I\u2019m going to live in Baku.\u201d He received $7,000 in campaign contributions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In July 2018, Adams held a fundraiser at the Ali Baba Turkish restaurant in Manhattan, raising $16,000. Turkish businessman Murat Guzel gave Adams $5,000 on July 12, 2018, and an additional $5,100 the following month. However, the Adams campaign had to return $8,100 back to Guzel as he had exceeded the $2,000 campaign donation limit. Also in July, Behram Turan, chairman of the board of directors of the Turken Foundation, donated $3,000 to Adams, NY City News Service reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Turkish Anadolu Agency quoted Adams as saying: \u201cTurkey has played a major role in shaping mankind\u2026 I am a friend of the Turkish people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among Mayor Adams\u2019 closest friends is Armenian restaurateur Zhan \u201cJohnny\u201d Petrosyants who has a checkered past. Politico reported that he \u201cwas charged in a money laundering case in federal court eight years ago. He and his twin brother, Robert, were indicted on 11 counts for taking part in a check-cashing scheme that involved medical billing companies. Johnny Petrosyants pleaded guilty to one of those counts and was sentenced to probation and community service, while his brother was sentenced to six months in federal prison. Together with another defendant, they had to forfeit nearly $700,000.\u201d The Petrosyants brothers and Mayor Adams are often seen together in private clubs and restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The New York Times published on August 22, 2022, a lengthy article with the title: \u201cEric Adams After Dark: A Private Table and Tarnished Friends.\u201d The newspaper reported that the Mayor spent at least 14 evenings in June at the upscale Manhattan Restaurant, La Baia, managed by the Petrosyants brothers. Adams usually spends three to four hours a night there and leaves well after closing time. The NY Times wrote that if the Mayor did not pay for his meals, he would be violating the city\u2019s ethics laws. Furthermore, \u201cbeing granted access to private clubs without paying membership dues risks violating ethics rules, said [Richard] Briffault, the former Conflicts of Interest Board chair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
La Baia restaurant\u2019s liquor license is under the name of Marianna Shahmuradyan who has several children with Robert Petrosyants, according to The NY Times. In April 2018, Shahmuradyan contributed $5,000 to Adams\u2019 campaign, $3,000 of which was returned to her for exceeding the $2,000 donation limit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another one of the Mayor\u2019s Armenian connections is Ronn Torossian who owns a PR firm in Manhattan. He is a controversial figure who did lobbying work for the government of Turkey, as I reported in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Daily Beast published an article about Torossian under the title: \u201cWhy Is NYC Mayor Eric Adams Glued to This \u2018Toxic\u2019 PR Guru?\u201d He was described as \u201can aggressive PR executive\u201d who \u201cis well-known for his street-brawler tactics.\u201d He organized the Mayor\u2019s election night lavish victory party at a private member-only club where Mayor Adams has repeatedly partied as Torossian\u2019s personal guest. The Mayor and Torossian were introduced by Zhan Petrosyants, according to The Daily Beast. \u201cSeven former staffers, who spoke with The Daily Beast anonymously out of fear of reprisals from Torossian, described him as a \u2018toxic\u2019 person from whom the incoming mayor of New York should maintain his distance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NY Times wrote that \u201cin his short time as mayor, Adams has occasionally waded into murky ethical waters. After pledging to pay his own way on a trip to Puerto Rico, he acknowledged flying on an entrepreneur\u2019s private jet. He later said he paid for his seat but did not provide documentation.\u201d Additionally, \u201cthe Conflicts of Interest Board ruled that Adams could not give his brother Bernard a $210,000 job as head of the mayor\u2019s security detail. Bernard Adams was then redirected to an adviser role with a $1 salary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With his multiple \u2018murky\u2019 dealings, it remains to be seen if Mayor Adams will be able to complete his term in office and realize his dream of retiring in Baku!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.S. media in recent months published several articles covering New York City Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 controversial statements, foreign travels, and fundraising activities. Before becoming Mayor on January 1, 2022, the Daily News (NY) published an article on February 6, 2021 with the title: \u201cNYC mayoral candidate Eric Adams accepted foreign travel to countries with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4101,"featured_media":774085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-759515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harut-sassounian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}