A foundation with close links to the family of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has spent more than $48 million on lobbying and influence activities in the United States in 2025, Deutsche Welle’s Turkish edition reported, citing data compiled by US watchdog OpenSecrets from Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings.
The TURKEN Foundation is a New York-based nonprofit founded in 2014 by the Turkey Youth and Education Service Foundation (TÜRGEV) and the Ensar Foundation, two Islamist education charities that support students and dormitory projects in Turkey and abroad.
TÜRGEV is generally seen in Turkey as part of President Erdoğan’s family network, with several of his relatives having served on its board, which has led opposition politicians and analysts to describe TURKEN as the family’s US-based extension.
OpenSecrets’ figures show TURKEN’s reported spending has risen sharply in recent years, from around $10.7 million in 2023 to $18.4 million in 2024, before jumping to $48.2 million in 2025.
According to the Deutsche Welle report, the Ensar Foundation transferred about $25.3 million to TURKEN in 2025, while TÜRGEV sent a further $22.9 million to cover the foundation’s lobbying-related activities.
DW said the combined spending of TÜRGEV and Ensar through TURKEN reached roughly $77.5 million between 2023 and 2025, based on OpenSecrets’ aggregation of FARA filings.
FARA records describe TURKEN as a tax exempt educational organization that provides housing, scholarships and cultural programs to mainly Muslim students in the United States while also engaging in outreach and public relations on behalf of its Turkish principals.
TURKEN and figures linked to it have previously attracted scrutiny in US and Turkish media over political donations and questions about transparency in how Turkish charitable funds are spent abroad.
DW said TURKEN, TÜRGEV and Ensar did not respond to its questions about why lobbying expenditures had increased so sharply or what specific activities the 2025 spending covered.