Both U.S., Turkey announce travel restrictions

ISTANBUL — The increasingly strained alliance between Turkey and the United States took a sharp downward turn Sunday when both governments abruptly announced they were canceling most visitor visas between the two countries, sowing confusion among travelers and exposing a widening rift between the NATO partners.

The crisis began when the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, the Turkish capital, announced it was immediately suspending all non-immigrant visa services at diplomatic facilities across Turkey. The move appeared to be retaliatory, comingdays after the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrested an employee of the U.S. Consulatein Istanbul.

An embassy statement said it was limiting visitors to U.S. missions while it “reassesses” Turkey’s commitment to the security of American personnel — an extraordinary rebuke that underscored a rapidly deteriorating relationship between the longtime allies. Within hours, the Turkish embassy in Washington released a nearly identical statement announcing its own suspension of non-immigrant visas for Americans.

The tit-for-tat moves illustrated how the critical alliance between Turkey and the United States, anchored in military, intelligence and commercial ties, has been battered in recent months by a series of deep disagreements over the war in Syria as well the fate of a Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who is wanted by the Turkish authorities and living in exile in Pennsylvania.

The strains have undermined vows by President Donald Trump to repair American ties to Turkey after they became frayed during the administration of Barack Obama. The escalating tensions also came despite what are said to be warm relations between Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Trump that stretchback years.

After the arrest last week of the U.S. consulate employee, Metin Topuz, strains between the two governments burst out into the open.

Turkish authorities accused Mr. Topuz of espionage and links to Mr. Gulen. The U.S. Embassy responded by saying it was “deeply disturbed”by the arrest and that the charges were “without merit.”

In a meeting with Turkish journalists, John Bass, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Turkey, said the arrest of Mr. Topuz, “seems to me more a pursuit of vengeance.”