The Armenian Weekly looks into the Woodrow Wilson Center’s award and finds that a lobbyist for Turkey sits on its board (h/t Martin Kramer):
DLA Piper is a gigantic, worldwide legal and corporate services firm that has registered with the U.S. government as a foreign agent for Turkey. The firm is well-known for having lobbied against Armenian Americans and is currently setting up an office in Istanbul.
Ignacio Sanchez is a lawyer employed by DLA Piper. He “represents national and international clients on a broad range of issues…before Congress” for his firm.
Sanchez also happens to sit on the Wilson Center’s Board of Trustees.
Given the Wilson Center’s receipt of public funding, director Lee Hamilton should certainly explain in detail the process by which the Wilson Center settled on Ahmet Davutoglu, a Hamas cheerleader, crude anti-Semite, and pro–Islamic Republic activist, as the recipient of its award. He might detail who served on the committee and whether anyone recused themselves.
At the very least, while the Wilson Center makes a mockery of itself, we should be glad that no registered agents of Syria sit on its board, as it would be only slightly more inconvenient for Lee Hamilton to defend an honor to Bashar al-Assad, who, after all, is not only a leader of an important regional state, but also a Western-educated eye doctor.