One former and two current Tennessee lawmakers are among more than 150 lawmakers from across the United States who traveled to Turkey on trips funded by a Turkish opposition group that the country’s government blames for an attempted coup attempt last year, according to a joint investigation by USA TODAY and the Center for Public Integrity.
Current Democratic Reps. Antonio Parkinson and Johnnie Turner, both of Memphis, said they had no knowledge that the trips were funded by organizations tied to Turkish opposition Gulen and Hizmet movements. But former state Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, said he knew well that Gulen funded the trip he took with 100 others to a conference about four years ago.
“We met with a lot of businesses owners getting them to try and come to America,” Campfield said. “We met with the President of Turkish airlines just talking about getting import and export things going.”
The joint investigation by USA TODAY and the Center for Public Integrity found that 151 state and federal lawmakers from 29 states, including Tennessee, took trips to Turkey between 2006 and 2015 that were financed by nonprofit organizations linked to the movement led by Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Gulen lives in Pennsylvania, and the Turkish government has sought his extradition, which has yet to be granted by the U.S. government.
The trip Campfield took was to a conference and he said it was “very pro-America” and what he thinks is an attempt to generate support after fears that Russia would invade Turkey. Campfield said the trip was to Turkey for “about four days” and then went Azerbaijan for “five, six days, something like that.”
“Very open — not like the burqa-wearing other countries,” he said. “They are very open to all religions and they don’t walk around in hijabs. They all dress like we do. (They were) very friendly to us, even people who didn’t know we were politicians.”
Parkinson said Thursday that the trip he took was with about 10 others including other current lawmakers three years ago was “a fact-finding” trip and an attempt “to connect Tennessee business” to Turkey. Turner said she was on that same trip, and “there was nothing political about it.”
Turner said others, including Tennessee lawmakers, had raved about similar trips previously, and she decided to go herself. She said they toured government agencies, schools and spent time in the homes of Turkish residents, but the topic of charter schools never came up.
“I will say emphatically that, no (charter schools never came up),” she said. “If they had, it would have given me greater ammunition to be against them, because I’m a strong, strong supporter of public education.”
Officials from the state’s Homeland Security office were also on the trip, Parkinson said. Campfield also said officials from Homeland Security were on the trip he attended.
In addition to opposition to the current Turkish government, the Gulen movement has been accused of trying to sway legislation and opinion and in the United States regarding charter schools. The USA TODAY and CPI investigation found that some lawmakers filed legislation in support of charter schools.
Campfield, a staunch supporter of charter schools, said that while he knew Gulen was trying to cultivate support for charter schools, “there was zero amount of that going on” during the trip, nor was it a prerequisite of traveling.
“I have always been a supporter of charter schools and was before I went on trip,” Campfield said. “My support of charter schools had nothing to do with going on the trip because I was supporter before after and during. There was absolutely nothing mentioned about school during the trip.”