Top banker’s arrest on agenda during Tillerson’s Turkey visit
NAN-F-33
Banker
Istanbul, March 29, 2017 (dpa/NAN) The Turkey’s Foreign Minister said on Wednesday that the arrest of a senior Turkish banker by U.S. authorities would be discussed with U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, when he visits Ankara on Thursday, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said.
Çavuşoğlu also called for a transparent process regarding Mehmet Atilla’s arrest, and said the Turkish consul-general was unable to receive information about Atilla until a formal statement was made.
A U.S. prosecutor had said on Tuesday that Atilla, a senior executive at Turkey’s Halkbank, helped disguise prohibited Iranian financial transactions as food.
The U.S. prosecutors charged the banker with participating in a multi-year scheme to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran, escalating a case that has added to tensions between the U.S. and Turkey.
He is accused of working with Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader, who is also under arrest in the U.S.
Zarra, who has ties to the administration of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was briefly arrested in Turkey in 2013 as part of a corruption probe that also involved top government figures.
The charges against Zarrab in Turkey were later dropped.
“We will of course include this in the agenda,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
The U.S.’ top diplomat is expected to discuss the conflict in Syria, with Turkey angry that Washington has allied itself with a Kurdish militia in the war against Islamic State.
Turkey is also demanding the U.S. to extradite a cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blames for orchestrating a failed coup last year.
Gulen, a one-time Erdogan ally, is a recurring character.
The government accuses his followers in the judiciary of launching the 2013 corruption probe as an attempt to overthrow Erdogan.
Cavusoglu also accused the former New York prosecutor who launched the probe of having links to Gulen. (dpa/NAN)
OYE/AMY
====
Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Abdullahi Yusuf