Erdogan steps up US row with boycott of envoy
ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Tuesday that Turkish officials will boycott the US ambassador, deepening one of the worst rifts in decades between the Nato allies.
Erdogan said Turkey no longer regarded outgoing envoy John Bass as the US representative to Turkey after American missions in the country stopped issuing visas.
The dispute erupted last week when Turkey arrested a Turkish employee of the American consulate on suspicion of links to the group blamed for last year’s failed coup.
In response, the United States stopped issuing visitor visas from its missions in Turkey, prompting Turkish missions to hit back with a tit-for-tat step of their own.
“We have not agreed and are not agreeing to this ambassador making farewell visits with ministers, the parliament speaker and myself,” Erdogan said.
“We do not see him as the representative of the United States in Turkey,” he added, speaking at a news conference with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade.
Bass is shortly to leave Turkey after being named the US envoy to Afghanistan and it is traditional for outgoing envoys to make valedictory visits to top officials.
And, although Bass is in Turkey for only a few more days, it is unprecedented in the history of Turkish-US relations for Ankara to no longer recognise Washington’s ambassador.
Erdogan said the arrest of the consulate staffer, based on evidence found by the police, shows “something is going on at the Istanbul consulate”.
“The US should evaluate one thing: how did those agents leak into the consulate?” he said.
JOURNALIST JAILED FOR ‘SPREADING TERRORIST PROPAGANDA’
The Wall Street Journal said one of its reporters has been convicted in Turkey of terrorist propaganda and has been sentenced to two years and one month in prison.
The paper said on Tuesday that Ayla Albayrak, who has dual Finnish and Turkish citizenship, would appeal her conviction on the charge of engaging in propaganda supporting outlawed Kurdish rebels.