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CHARITABLE MISGIVING
Turning a blind eye to Textron’s Turkey deal

BY STEVEN STYCOS

Peace activists are questioning how Providence-based Textron, whose impending $4.5 billion sale of helicopters to Turkey is under fire from human-rights groups, was chosen Outstanding Philanthropic Corporation for 2001 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP).

Last week, Textron was recognized during the AFP’s international conference in San Diego for contributing $6.8 million to nonprofits in 2000 and involving other corporations in charitable giving, according to spokesman Michael Nilsen. AFP also lauded Textron for a “welfare to work” program at its Cessna Aircraft plant in Wichita, Kansas, and its unusual use of company resources for charity, such as tapping corporate jets to fly children to the Special Olympics.

Textron, the 10th-largest military contractor in the US, was nominated by the AFP’s Rhode Island chapter and endorsed by the Wichita chapter, Nilsen explains. The association looks only at a company’s philanthropic work, he adds, and doesn’t take positions on issues like foreign arms sales.

The outlook isn’t so simple, though, for Xebat Baran, a Kurdish émigré in Rhode Island who was detained and tortured by the Turkish police 10 years ago. Voicing human-rights concerns, he calls the award “an unfortunate decision.” As Baran puts it, “It’s a shame they didn’t see the other side of Textron — the weapons side of Textron, not flying kids to the Special Olympics.”

Amnesty International USA and Baran, who uses a pseudonym because he fears that Turkish police will retaliate against relatives still living in Turkey, have criticized Textron for the pending sale of 145 KingCobra attack helicopters to that country (see “Torture Is the Issue,” News and Features, December 14, 2000). Advocacy groups have documented Turkey’s use of the Cobras in human-rights violations against the country’s Kurdish minority. Textron has also been criticized for arming the Indonesian military in East Timor, selling helicopter gunships to Colombia, and lobbying against a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide of 1915 and 1916.

Andrea Joseph, president of AFP’s Rhode Island chapter and director of development for East Providence’s Meeting Street Center, says Textron was selected “based upon their record of corporate giving.” Joseph refused to say whether the local recommendation was unanimous, or whether the company’s manufacture of attack helicopters, mines, and guided-missile components was discussed. “I feel extremely uncomfortable speaking with you,” she said. Gayle Gifford, a nonprofit consultant and member of the Rhode Island AFP board, also declined to comment.

In Rhode Island, Textron is best known for having donated $1 million to the state’s first charter school, Textron Chamber of Commerce Academy in Providence, since 1986. But Textron’s local contributions buy more than good works. A long-time peace activist refused to comment on the AFP award, fearing that doing so might endanger an ongoing Textron grant to the nonprofit agency where the activist works.

Issue Date: March 22 - 29, 2001