After Turkish media reported that an American diplomat was arrested in Turkey final month on suspicion of promoting a pretend passport, the US State Division on Wednesday denied that the detained particular person is a US diplomat.
“We’re conscious of the detention of a U.S. citizen in Turkey,” a State Division official instructed Al-Monitor in emailed feedback. “We’re offering applicable consular companies.”
“The person just isn’t a U.S. diplomat,” the official added.
The Istanbul Safety Directorate recognized the person by his initials D.J.Ok. and stated he labored on the US Embassy in Beirut.
The US citizen was arrested after a Syrian man tried utilizing a pretend passport on the Istanbul Airport on Nov. 11 in an effort to board a flight to Germany, the directorate stated in a press release carried by Anadolu Agency.
Safety digicam footage from the airport confirmed the US citizen handing a passport to the Syrian and exchanging garments with him. Police then detained the American and seized a $10,000 fee he was carrying in an envelope, the assertion stated.
Anadolu reported that the Syrian man faces forgery prices however is out of jail pending trial. The American reportedly stays in Turkish custody.
The arrest comes as relations between NATO allies Turkey and the US are already under strain over a lot of points, together with US assist for Kurdish fighters in Syria, Turkey’s buy of the Russian-made S-400 missile defense system and the nation’s deteriorating human rights report.
Lately, three Turkish residents working for the US — a guard on the US Consulate in Istanbul, a translator for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, and a longtime translator for the US Consulate in Adana — had been detained and sentenced to jail in Turkey for alleged ties to a company that Ankara blames for the failed 2016 coup. Washington has described the accusations towards its former native workers as baseless.
