Oz’s ties to Turkey came under attack in the race for the Pennsylvania Senate State and region

HARISBURG, Pennsylvania. Mehmet Oz’s rivals in Republican primaries in Pennsylvania to the US Senate are exacerbating their attacks on the famous heart surgeon’s ties to his parents’ home country of Turkey, raising this as a possible national security issue.

Oz, best known as the televised Dr. Oz, dismissed any allegations that he posed a threat to national security, and accused his opponent, former hedge fund CEO David McCormick, of committing “fanatical attacks.” If elected, Oz will become the country’s first Muslim senator, although Oz has not campaigned on this milestone.

Oz, who was born in the United States, has Turkish citizenship, served in the Turkish army and voted in the 2018 election, but says he renounce dual citizenship in Turkey if he is elected.

Former Trump Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who backed McCormick in the election race, told reporters on Friday that Oz was obliged to explain “the scope and depth of his relationship with the Turkish government.”

Americans need to know if “Oz is fit for service,” Pompeo said.

As director of the CIA, Pompeo served in the Trump administration alongside Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, who caught the attention of the Justice Department because of the lucrative advisory work he and his firm did that benefited the Turkish government.

Oz also has financial ties to Turkey.

He has a report on financial disclosure to the SenateOz has disclosed property he owns in Turkey, assets from the estate of his late father who are there in a lawsuit, and an approval agreement with Turkish Airlines, which is partly owned by the Turkish government.

In a recent debate, McCormick, a veteran of U.S. military operations during the Gulf War, accused Oz of unjustified dual citizenship in Turkey and tried to contrast Oz’s service in the Turkish army with McCormick’s service in the U.S. Army.

Another rival, Carla Sands, a former Trump ambassador to Denmark who inherited commercial real estate, suggested that Oz has a double loyalty, calling him “Turkey first” as a play on Trump’s philosophy “America first”.

Repulsing McCormick’s attacks in MarchOz suggested that his religion was the target, accusing McCormick of committing “fanatical attacks” that “resembled insults inflicted in the past on Catholics and Jews.”

Oz claimed to have served in the Turkish army as a young man to retain his dual citizenship. According to him, he still maintains this, so in Turkey he has the legal authority to make health decisions for his mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease.

Oz voted in the 2018 elections in Turkey when he was at the consulate in New York at meetings dedicated to his humanitarian work on behalf of Syrian refugees in Turkey, his campaign said.

He voted against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his campaign said, noting that it is unusual for Americans with dual citizenship to vote in elections in other countries.

“Voting in the election is very different from active participation in the political work of the Turkish government, in which Dr. Oz has never participated,” the Oz campaign said.

Senate historians have been unable to find a U.S. senator who retained dual citizenship.

In an hour-long speech at a rally Friday night, Trump first attacked McCormick by name, saying he worked for a company that “managed money for communist China.”

McCormick, Trump said, “a candidate of special interests and globalists and the Washington establishment,” spends millions of dollars to defeat Oz and “rip off the United States with bad trade deals and open borders.” This is the first time Trump

Trump did not specifically mention the attacks on Oz’s ties to Turkey, but singled out Oz in the crowd as a “warrior” and a longtime friend who has the best chance of winning a place on the battlefield in the fall general election.

David Lawman, former head of the counterintelligence department in the Department of Homeland Security’s Department of Homeland Security, said he believes national security concerns are individuals and organizations that pose terrorist threats, cybersecurity or economic security threats or are involved in leverage operations. in the United States on behalf of foreign states.

“I think we need to be careful to classify any American as a national security risk simply because of their ties to a foreign country,” Lawman said in an interview.

Edward Ahmed Mitchell, deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the nonprofit did not comment on specific companies.

But overall, he said, the organization viewed attacks on one aspect of the candidate – such as their place of birth – as a substitute for a more obvious racist attack, such as their race or religion.

Flynn – Trump’s former national security adviser – was rejected in the first month of the Trump administration after the White House said it lied about its Russian contacts during the transition.

He is later recognized in a criminal case Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller said his documents to the Justice Department, when he registered as a foreign agent for his work in Turkey, included “false statements and omissions.”