Trump State Department Prioritizes "Soft Power" Outreach to Turkey's Authoritarian Government Over Protecting the Rights of American Collectors and Minority Groups

 The Trump State Department has renewed a controversial Cultural Property Agreement with Turkey's authoritarian government over the objections of American coin collectors and representatives of displaced minorities.  The implementing regulations continue to embargo a wide variety of cultural goods made as recently as 1924, including an extensive list of ancient Greek, Roman Provincial, Byzantine and Ottoman coin types and religious objects associated with Turkey's displaced Greek, Armenian and Jewish minority communities.  This latest indication that it remains  "business as usual" at the State Department once again demonstrates the need for Congress to pass HR 595, a bill to facilitate the lawful trade in historical coins, as well as far more far more fundamental  reform legislation to place guardrails on the process to help protect the private property rights of collectors and minority communities.