NEW YORK – New York Mayor Eric Adams attended the Turkish community’s 39th annual parade on May 22 on Madison Avenue in Manhattan.

The event could be seen as a simple ceremonial move for the mayor. He should have known, however, that this parade was another blatant propaganda of Erdogan, as he had the support and coordination of the Communications Directorate of the Turkish Presidency. According to the organizers, it attracted about 5,000 people, although the photos clearly do not show such numbers.

In addition, the mayor does not seem to care that at this time the Turkish leadership is threatening Greece, insulting the U.S., blackmailing NATO, and helping Putin, ignoring the sanctions. Regardless of all this, the mayor attended.

However, the videotaped message from Turkish Communications Director Fahrettin Altun sounds ironic, saying that events such as the parade are a beacon for the unity and solidarity of the Turkish people and that “in addition, these events have a function that brings our country’s wealth to American society and conveys the voice of our nation.”

The parade was attended by Turkish Ambassador to the United States Hasan Murat Mercan, Turkish Envoy to the UN Feridun Sinirlioglu, and Reyhan Ozgur, Consul General of Turkey in New York, according to the Turkish website Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, which broadcasts internationally from Constantinople.

Apart from the Turkish media, the event was not covered in any other publication, after an exhaustive search on the internet. But it was Mayor Adams himself who happily uploaded four photos of himself on Twitter- obviously, so as not to lose the votes of Turkish-Americans, unless there are other aspects unknown to us.

The Greek community gave him a second chance, after the unacceptable statements he had made while still newly-elected, and accepted the assurances of our Greek-American New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes.

Unfortunately, it was not long before the mayor switched gears, showing either that he has some interests with the Turks, to whom he jokingly said that he would be “a Turkish mayor in New York,” or that he urgently needs to change political advisors.

It should be noted that the mayor was asked to offer an explanation in a meeting on February 15 with leaders of the Greek-American Community at Gracie Mansion.

At the time, The National Herald reported that the initiative belonged to Gounardes, who maintains excellent relations with the current mayor.

The meeting was deemed necessary after TNH’s report last December, regarding Adams’ statements to the Turkish news agency Anadolu where, in addition to his assessment of Turkey, the mayor had made inaccurate statements which indirectly offended the sense of justice of Greeks and Cypriots.

Among the unacceptable things he had told the Turkish agency was that “Turkey has played a major role in shaping humanity and will continue to do so in the future” and had announced pursuing closer contact with Turkey at the administrative and financial level during his tenure in New York’s City Hall.

According to an earlier article in the New York Post, as early as 2015, Adams had been criticized when he made one of his trips to Turkey as Brooklyn Borough president with the expenses covered by the Turkish state.