Erdogan acknowledges strains with Obama

Turkish PM says disappointed by US action over Syria

ANKARA, July 23, (RTRS): Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has acknowledged his relations with US President Barack Obama have soured, saying he had been disappointed among other things by a lack of US action over the war in neighbouring Syria.

Erdogan enjoys strong support in Turkey and is expected to become Turkey’s first directly elected president in a vote on Aug. 10, but his leadership has left Turkey increasingly isolated on the global stage.

Everything from his bombastic rhetoric on Israel to his crackdown on anti-government protests last summer has raised concern among Western allies.

Asked in a televised interview late on Monday whether relations with Obama had become are medals of honour”.

Erdogan has long accused followers of Gulen of establishing a “parallel structure within the state” by using its sway in Turkey’s police and the judiciary and of concocting the vast corruption scandal.

Some of those detained were reportedly involved in the corruption probe that was launched late last year and were among thousands of officials sacked by Erdogan’s government in a spectacular purge of the police forces. strained, Erdogan said he no longer spoke directly to Obama as he did in the past.

“Naturally because I did not get the results I wanted in this process, in particular on Syria, our foreign ministers hold talks, as I do with (US Vice-President Joe) Biden,” he said.

“Currently, to be honest, we discuss the Iraq issue with Biden. I said to our president, you call and speak to Mr. Obama directly about this subject,” Erdogan said, adding he was not sure whether the two men had since done so.

Turkey has been an opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backing rebels fighting to oust him and allowing the political opposition to organise on Turkish soil. It long lobbied for international intervention in the war.

A group of them are suspected of illegally eavesdropping on prominent figures since 2010, including Erdogan, judges, journalists, cabinet members, as well as the head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation (MIT), Hakan Fidan.

After March 30 local elections that gave his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) a crushing victory, Erdogan had vowed to pursue his rivals “in their lairs” and said he would seek Gulen’s extradition. Members of the media gather around former head of the anti-terror department of the Istanbul police, Ali Fuat Yilmazer (left), detained as part of a criminal probe over alleged corruption, as he leaves a hospital in Istanbul after a medical check-up at the start of his custody in Istanbul on July 22. Turkish authorities on July 22 arrested dozens of senior police officers in a criminal probe over alleged illegal wire-tapping and forgery, the latest crackdown on opponents of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of presidential

polls. (AFP)