The Foreign Service Journal, September 2020

20 SEPTEMBER 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL He did so despite the advice of his deputy chief of mission, Foreign Service Officer Lewis A. Lukens, that such a request would constitute an unethical use of the presidency for private gain. A few months after Lukens notified the State Department of the incident, Amb. John- son ousted Lukens, seven months before his tour was to end, effectively torpedoing his diplomatic career. Among other things, Johnson was reportedly furious that at two British universities his DCMhad given a speech in which he shared a positive anecdote about President Barack Obama’s 2013 visit to Senegal, where Lukens was the ambas- sador at the time, according to a December 2019 GQ article by Julia Ioffe, “Trump Is Waging War on America’s Diplomats.” The Times article also noted com- plaints that the ambassador compliments the appearances of female embassy employees during staff meetings. CNN reported July 22 that Johnson made racist generalizations about Black men. At least some of the complaints about Johnson’s management style were raised with the department’s Office of the Inspector General last fall, when a team of investigators began a routine review of diplomatic operations in London. Their findings were submitted in Feb- ruary, and the complaints about Johnson are expected to be included, according to one of the investigators. It is not clear why the review has not been made public, but it has been designated classified, which is unusual. On Aug. 5, Lukens spoke about the incident on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” confirming that he had advised Amb. Johnson twice that pushing the British government to use Trump’s golf course was “unethical, probably illegal,” but that the ambassador went ahead anyway. Neither the State Department nor the embassy has addressed the accusations directly, but the department said Mr. Johnson had led the embassy “honorably and professionally.” It issued a statement declaring, “We stand by Ambassador Johnson and look forward to him con- tinuing to ensure our special relationship with the U.K. is strong.” A Discouraging “New Era” I n a case that has stoked tensions between Ankara and Washington since 2017, a Turkish court sentenced Metin Topuz, an employee of Consulate General Istanbul who had spent 20 years working for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, to nearly nine years in prison on June 11. A post on the Twitter account of U.S. Embassy Ankara noted that U.S. officials have “observed every hearing in the trial of Metin Topuz in Istanbul, and we are deeply disappointed in today’s decision.” The sentence was handed down just three days after a phone call between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Donald Trump. Erdogan later said during a television interview that “a new era” could begin in Turkey’s relationship with the United States. Turkish authorities had arrested the 20-year veteran of the consulate in September 2017 and charged himwith membership in a terrorist organization, among other counts. The arrest set off a tit-for-tat spat between the United States and Turkey, which included reciprocal travel restric- tions. In March 2020, Turkish prosecutors reduced the charges, dropping accusa- tions of espionage and attempting to overthrow the government. Topuz was convicted of aiding a move- ment led by Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Turkish cleric whom Turkish officials accuse of orchestrating a failed coup against Erdogan’s government in 2016. Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, has denied backing the coup attempt. We first reported on Mr. Topuz’s plight in our December 2018 issue, which focused on Locally Employed staff, in an article titled “When Doing Your Job Lands You in Jail.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the accusations against Topuz “baseless,” stating that the charges “misrepresent both the scope and nature of the impor- tant work undertaken by our local staff on behalf of the U.S. government and in the promotion of our bilateral relationship.” “This conviction undermines confi- dence in Turkey’s institutions and the critical trust at the foundation of Turkish- American relations,” Pompeo declared. “We reiterate our call on the Turkish government to resolve his case in a just manner.” On June 15, Ambassador Eric Rubin, president of the American Foreign Service Association, issued the following statement: “I share Secretary Pompeo’s concern over the conviction of U.S. Con- sulate General Istanbul Locally Employed staff member Metin Topuz. AFSA joins the entire Foreign Service community in hoping that this conviction will be over- turned quickly. “AFSA stands in support of our tens of thousands of Locally Employed staff members, without whom the daily busi- ness of American diplomacy would be impossible,” Rubin continued. “Their contributions are myriad, and they make our foreign policy and global engagement stronger and more successful.” n This edition of Talking Points was com- piled by Cameron Woodworth and Steven Alan Honley.