Apparently, Turkish-US relations are tense at present.
Early last month, Turkish investigators arrested Metin Topuz, a 35-year employee of the U.S. Istanbul Consulate, on suspicion of collaborating with Fetullah Gulen's organization in regard to the various crimes they have committed in Turkey over the past several years.
Turkish society had been aware for several months that someone at the U.S. Consulate had been in frequent contact with Gulen's operatives, wrote Adam McConnel, Professor at Sabanci University of Istanbul. His comment titled "New balance in Turkish-American relations" was published the Anadolu news agency.
But U.S. Ambassador to Turkey John Bass, whose tweets, public statements, and actions over the past two years had already made him unwelcome, chose to completely ignore the Istanbul Consulate's cloudy and deeply disturbing communications with Gulen's adherents.
If those conversations were simply a part of Topuz's responsibilities at the Consulate, then the Ambassador could, at the very least, have explained that to Turkish society.
Bass, however, chose to condescend to Turkish society in relation to a matter that all Turkish citizens care greatly about.
Gulen's followers took 250 Turkish lives in July 2016, but the former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey did not deem the issue important enough to take the necessary and logical step of informing Turkish society why Topuz had been on the phone with Gulen's operatives so frequently. No attempt was made to provide transparency or soothe Turkish public sentiment, Adam McConnel said.
Instead, Ambassador Bass decided to make a diplomatic gaffe of monumental proportions.
Without advance notice to Turkish authorities or to Turkish society, he suspended visa application procedures late on Sunday, October 8, for Turkish citizens, claiming that the arrest of Topuz constituted a security threat to U.S. missions in Turkey.
Turkey, no longer the U.S.'s patsy, immediately implemented the same restrictions for U.S. citizens, and a full-blown crisis erupted between the two countries.
To top off the disgraceful situation, U.S. officials demanded that Turkish authorities return Topuz's telephone, claiming that it is a security threat for them and that the phone is protected under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Because of the other problems plaguing Turkish-American affairs, official U.S. behavior in regard to Topuz's arrest has caused far greater harm to relations between the two NATO allies than might have been the case otherwise, McConnel argues.
Look at it this way: at the exact same time the U.S. has sent hundreds of truckloads of weapons to the PKK's Syrian branch, the U.S. claims to be highly concerned about a telephone used to help Gulen's cultists carry out extralegal activities, essentially sabotage, intended to harm Turkish state and society.
"What do Turkish citizens understand from that? That Turkish lives and security are not as important to U.S. officials as a single cell phone. And then U.S. officials express surprise that anti-Americanism rise in Turkey?," concludes McConnel.
Gulen movement declared a terrorist group
On June 1, 2016, President Erdogan officially designated the Gulen movement a terrorist group and said he would pursue its members whom he accused of trying to topple the government.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
