Inside the Turkish tower in NYC at the center of Mayor Eric Adams indictment

What did Turkey and its powerful, globetrotting president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan get in return for the thousands of dollars in luxury, first-class travel, other lavish perks allegedly funneled to embattled Mayor Eric Adams?According to the historic, five-count indictment unsealed by Manhattan prosecutors Thursday, Erdoğan scored a glossy, 36-story glass and steel tower across from the United Nations called the Turkish House that soars over the NYC skyline and the East River — a consular showplace allegedly fast-tracked by Adams despite fire safety concerns.“In Sept.2021 [a Turkish official] told Eric Adams, the defendant, that it was his turn to repay the Turkish official by pressuring the New York City Fire Department to facilitate the opening of a new Turkish consular building — a 36-story skyscraper — without a fire inspection, in time for a high profile visit by Turkey’s president,” the indictment read.“At the time, the building would have failed an FDNY inspection.

In exchange for free travel and travel-related bribes in 2021 and 2022 arranged by the Turkish official, Adams did as instructed.“Because of Adams’ pressure on the FDNY, the FDNY official responsible for the FDNY’s assessment of the skyscraper’s fire safety was told he would lose his job if he failed to acquiesce, and after Adams intervened, the skyscraper was opened as requested.”In 2017, just after construction began on what is also called the Turkevi Center, Erdogan presided over a ceremony at the site with his wife and his foreign minister.“This new building will be a place worthy of our growing and developing country whose reputation is increasing in every field,” Erdogan said at the ceremony, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.Turkevi House, he said, would symbolize a “space worthy of our country’s glory.”It was for Erdogan’s glory as well, according to Sinan Ciddi, an expert on Turkish domestic politics and foreign policy at the Foundati...