Mehmet Oz’s Explanation of Why He Kept Turkish Citizenship Makes No Sense

By Michael Rubin

Washington Examiner

May 09, 2022

Mehmet Oz, the television doctor-turned-Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, continues to fend off criticism regarding his ties to Turkey.

While several sitting senators were born abroad, Oz’s foreign ties are more problematic for a number of reasons. First, Oz’s ties to Turkey are not simply a matter of birth. He served in the Turkish military and voted in a recent Turkish election, reportedly just days after failing to do so in the United States. His fawning interaction with Turkey’s mercurial and profoundly anti-American dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan is cringeworthy : It came and comes against the backdrop of the imprisonment of thousands in Turkey, Erdogan’s crackdown on religious freedom, and the taking of Andrew Brunson, an American pastor, as a political hostage.

Oz had repeatedly deflected criticism by saying he retained his Turkish citizenship to care for his mother better. This explanation is dishonest: Oz could care for his mother regardless of his citizenship status. Until recently, Americans could go to a booth at Turkey’s major international airports and get a Turkish visa for $20. The whole process took less than five minutes, even when there was a line. Oz reportedly has a net worth in excess of $100 million, so the financial strain of getting a visa a few times each year was no deterrent. Today, the process is even easier: U.S. citizens can apply online for an e-visa in advance of their travel and receive their Turkey visa almost instantaneously.

That Oz uses visas as an excuse is both dishonest and arrogant. It is dishonest because it is patently wrong. It is arrogant because Oz believes that not only the citizens of Pennsylvania, my home state for the first half of my life, but also journalists are too unworldly to realize that Turkey’s visa regimen is by design among the easiest in the world.

Oz’s supporters may say that dual citizenship is common and will not interfere with his duties. Many security professionals beg to differ, and even Oz acknowledges the problem when he offers to bypass access to some information.

Make no mistake, however. This is not a routine problem. When I worked in the Pentagon two decades ago, a colleague who sat in the same office suite had Swiss dual citizenship. That factor held up his clearance for months. Switzerland, of course, has never been a national security threat to the U.S., yet investigators took even lapsed dual citizenship seriously.

Turkey, NATO member or not, is no Switzerland. Under Erdogan, Turkey has exposed U.S. forces in Syria to Islamic State terrorists by publicly pinpointing their facilities and supplies, profited to the tune of billions first by helping Iran evade sanctions, and it is now doing the same with Russia. He has embraced Hamas and, recent declarations to the contrary, continues to allow the U.S.-designated terror group to seek safe haven if not plan terror attacks from Turkey’s territory. Purchasing S-400 missiles that could betray the security of NATO’s next-generation F-35 fighter jet and the continuous bombing of Yazidi returnees to Iraq is only icing on the cake.

Oz had decades to disassociate himself from such behavior but instead indulged the man responsible. His decision had nothing to do with a sick mother. That he feels he must lie suggests his relationship with Turkey goes beyond an accident of birth.

This article was originally published here.

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