Manhattan prosecutors have unsealed a historic, five-count indictment involving embattled Mayor Eric Adams and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The allegations revolve around thousands of dollars in luxury first-class travel, other lavish perks that were allegedly funneled to Adams from Erdoğan’s powerful, globetrotting president.
As a result of this alleged exchange of favors, the Turkish House, a 36-story glass and steel tower across from the United Nations, was fast-tracked by Adams despite serious fire safety concerns. The indictment states that in September 2021, a Turkish official told Adams to pressure the New York City Fire Department to facilitate the opening of this new consular building without a proper fire inspection.
In exchange for these travel arrangements and related bribes organized by the Turkish official between 2021 and 2022, Adams followed through on the instructions. After Adams’ involvement, the building was opened as requested despite failing an FDNY inspection at the time. The indictment details how an FDNY official responsible for assessing the skyscraper’s fire safety was warned that they would lose their job if they did not cooperate with Adams’ pressure on the FDNY.
The Turkish House project began in 2017, shortly after construction started on what is also known as the Turkevi Center. Erdogan presided over a ceremony at the site alongside his wife and foreign minister. He referred to the building as a “place worthy of our growing and developing country whose reputation is increasing in every field.” For Sinan Ciddi, an expert on Turkish domestic politics and foreign policy at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, this was purely a vanity project for Erdoğan.
The architectural firm Perkins Eastman designed the building with a curved facade as a homage to the crescent on the Turkish flag. The top of the Turkish House is shaped like a tulip, which is the national flower of Turkey. Despite efforts to address fire safety concerns and bring the building up to code, a 2021 report from the Department of Buildings viewed by The Post still listed various fire safety issues that had not been fixed.
Turkish House includes facilities such as a passport and visa branch office, public areas, conference rooms, a multi-purpose prayer room, an auditorium, and some residential units. Turkish officials regularly hold diplomatic meetings in the building. In September 2021, Erdogan invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Turkish House.
According to reports, Turkish House was built by Turkish billionaire Enver Yucel, who is also the head of BAU Global, an umbrella education network that includes Bay Atlantic and Bahcesehir universities. One notable figure in this situation is former Turkish Airlines executive Cenk Ocal, who became part of Adams’ transition team after he assumed the mayoral office in 2022.
On the same day as the federal raids on Adams’ top fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, homes were also raided for City Hall staffer Rana Abbasova and Ocal. However, Ocal was not named in the indictment against Mayor Adams.
