Tag Archives: Turkey

Turkey threatens retaliation after Iraqi Kurdish independence vote

Kurds celebrate to show their support for the independence referendum in Erbil, Iraq September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

By Maher Chmaytelli

ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – The Iraqi government ruled out talks on possible secession for Kurdish-held northern Iraq on Tuesday and Turkey threatened sanctions after a referendum in the region showed strong support for independence.

Initial results of Monday’s vote indicated 72 percent of eligible voters had taken part and an overwhelming majority, possibly over 90 percent, had said “yes”, Kurdish TV channel Rudaw said. Final results are expected by Wednesday.

Celebrations continued until the early hours of Tuesday in Erbil, capital of the Kurdish region, which was lit by fireworks and adorned with Kurdish red-white-green flags. People danced in the squares as convoys of cars drove around honking their horns.

In ethnically mixed Kirkuk, where Arabs and Turkmen opposed the vote, authorities lifted an overnight curfew imposed to maintain control.

In neighboring Iran, which has a large Kurdish minority, thousands of Kurds marched in the streets to show their support for the referendum, defying a show of strength by Tehran which flew fighter jets over their areas.

The referendum has fueled fears of a new regional conflict. Turkey, which has fought a Kurdish insurgency within its borders for decades, reiterated threats of economic and military retaliation.

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani says the vote is not binding, but meant to provide a mandate for negotiations with Baghdad and neighboring countries over the peaceful secession of the region from Iraq.

IRAQI OPPOSITION

But Iraq’s opposition to Kurdish independence did not waver.

“We are not ready to discuss or have a dialogue about the results of the referendum because it is unconstitutional,” Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a speech on Monday night.

The Kurds held the vote despite threats from Baghdad, Iraq’s powerful eastern neighbor Iran, and Turkey, the region’s main link to the outside world.

“This referendum decision, which has been taken without any consultation, is treachery,” Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said, repeating threats to cut off the pipeline that carries hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day from northern Iraq to global markets.

He warned that Iraqi Kurds would go hungry if Turkey imposed sanctions and said military and economic measures could be used against them.

Iraqi Kurds – part of the largest ethnic group left stateless when the Ottoman empire collapsed a century ago – say the referendum acknowledges their contribution in confronting Islamic State after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army in 2014 and seized control of a third of Iraq.

Voters were asked to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question: “Do you want the Kurdistan Region and Kurdistani areas outside the (Kurdistan) Region to become an independent country?”

With 30 million ethnic Kurds scattered across the region, mainly in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria, governments fear the spread of separatism to their own Kurdish populations.

Iraqi soldiers joined Turkish troops for military exercises in southeast Turkey on Tuesday near the border with Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

Turkey also took the Rudaw TV channel off its satellite service TurkSat, a Turkish broadcasting official told Reuters.

STATE DEPARTMENT

The U.S. State Department said it was “deeply disappointed” by the KRG’s decision to conduct the referendum but added that Washington’s “historic relationship” with the people of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region would not change.

Asked about the referendum, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Monday: “We hope for a unified Iraq to annihilate ISIS (Islamic State) and certainly a unified Iraq to push back on Iran.”

The European Union regretted that the Kurds had failed to heed its call not to hold the referendum and said Iraqi unity remained essential in facing the threat from Islamic State.

The Kremlin signaled its opposition to a Kurdish breakaway in northern Iraq, saying Moscow backed the territorial integrity of countries in the region.

Iran banned flights to and from Kurdistan on Sunday, while Baghdad asked foreign countries to stop oil trading with the Kurdish region and demanded that the KRG hand over control of its international airports and border posts with Iran, Turkey and Syria.

Iranian Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top adviser to the Supreme Leader, called on “the four neighboring countries to block land borders” with the Iraqi Kurdish region, according to state news agency IRNA.

Tehran supports Shi’ite Muslim groups that have ruled or held security and government positions in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Syria, embroiled in a devastating civil war and whose Kurds are pressing ahead with their own self-determination, rejected the referendum.

KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said he hoped to maintain good relations with Turkey. “The referendum does not mean independence will happen tomorrow, nor are we redrawing borders,” he said in Erbil on Monday. “If the ‘yes’ vote wins, we will resolve our issues with Baghdad peacefully.”

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson reiterated London’s opposition to the vote, urging “all sides to refrain from provocative statements and actions in its aftermath.

“The priority must remain the defeat of Daesh and returning stability to liberated areas,” he added, a reference to Islamic State militants who continue to control parts of Iraq and Syria.

(Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay in ANKARA and Umit Bektas in HABUR, Turkey; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Giles Elgood)

Oil hits highest since July 2015 as producers say market rebalancing

A gas station worker pumps gas into a car at a gas station of the state oil company PDVSA in Caracas, Venezuela August 29, 2017.

By Jessica Resnick-Ault

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices hit a more than two-year high on Monday after major producers said the global market was on its way toward re-balancing, while Turkey threatened to cut oil flows from Iraq’s Kurdistan region toward its ports.

The November Brent crude futures contract was up $1.51, or 2.5 percent, at $58.37 a barrel by 11:33 a.m. EDT, its highest since July, 2015.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery rose $1.02, or 2 percent, to $51.68 a barrel, close to highs last seen in May.

“It’s all driven by the idea is that the production cut is starting to work and the rebalance is underway,” said Gene McGillian, director of market research at Tradition Energy in New York.

Even as both contracts rallied, concerns about U.S. production growth weighed on WTI, widening the spread between the two, he said.

The discount of the WTI to Brent futures widened to $6.61, the widest since August 2015.

Turkey has said it could cut off a pipeline that carries oil from northern Iraq to the global market, putting more pressure on the Kurdish autonomous region over its independence referendum.

The Iraqi government does not recognize the referendum and has called on foreign countries to stop importing Kurdish crude oil.

“If this boycott call proves successful, a good 500,000 fewer barrels of crude oil per day would reach the market,” Commerzbank said in a note.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and several other producers have cut production by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) since the start of 2017, helping to lift oil prices by about 15 percent in the past three months.

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Essam al-Marzouq, who chaired Friday’s meeting in Vienna of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, said output curbs were helping to cut global crude inventories to their five-year average, OPEC’s stated target.

Russia’s energy minister said no decision on extending output curbs beyond the end of March was expected before January, although other ministers suggested such a decision could be taken before the end of this year.

Iran expects to maintain overall crude and condensate exports at around 2.6 million bpd for the rest of 2017, a senior official from the country’s state oil company said.

The energy minister from the United Arab Emirates said the country’s compliance with OPEC’s supply cuts was 100 percent.

Nigeria is pumping below its agreed output cap, its oil minister said.

 

 

(Additional reporting by Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo and Fanny Potkin in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Jane Merriman)

 

Turkey plans security steps over Iraqi Kurdish referendum

Turkish armoured personnel carriers (APC) maneuver during a military exercise near the Turkish-Iraqi border in Silopi, Turkey September 23, 2017. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

By Daren Butler and Raya Jalabi

ISTANBUL/BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Turkey said on Saturday it would take security and other steps in response to a planned independence referendum in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region that it called a “terrible mistake”, as a Kurdish delegation was in Baghdad for talks on the crisis.

The Turkish parliament was to convene later on Saturday to vote on extending a mandate that authorizes Turkish troop deployments to Iraq and Syria and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim alluded to possible military moves on Saturday.

The United States and other Western powers have also urged authorities in the semi-autonomous Iraqi region to cancel the vote planned for Monday. They say the move by the oil-producing Kurdish area distracts from the fight against Islamic State.

In Iraq, a Kurdistan regional government delegation arrived in Baghdad on Saturday for talks with Iraqi government in a bid to defuse tensions, but a senior Kurdish official said the vote was going ahead.

“The delegation will discuss the referendum but the referendum is still happening,” Hoshiyar Zebari, a top adviser to Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, told Reuters.

Asked if a cross-border operation was among the options, the Turkish premier told reporters: “Naturally, it is a question of timing as to when security, economic and security options are implemented. Developing conditions will determine that.”

Ankara, which has NATO’s second-largest army, warned on Friday the Iraqi vote would threaten security and force it to slap sanctions on a neighbor and trading partner, although it did not specify what measures it might take. [L5N1M321K]

Turkey, home to the largest Kurdish population in the region and fighting a Kurdish insurgency on its soil, has warned that any break-up of neighboring Iraq or Syria could lead to a global conflict. The Kurdish region exports oil through Turkey.

“TERRIBLE MISTAKE”

The spokesman of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan kept up the diplomatic pressure on Saturday.

“If the referendum is not canceled there will be serious consequences. Erbil must immediately refrain from this terrible mistake which will trigger new crises in the region,” spokesman Ibrahim Kalin wrote on Twitter.

Militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) launched a rocket and mortar attack from the Iraqi side of the border on Turkey’s Semdinli district on Saturday, killing one Turkish soldier and a worker in the area of a military base, the Hakkari governor’s office said in a statement.

The PKK launched its separatist insurgency in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union.

The Turkish president, who chaired back-to-back meetings of Turkey’s cabinet and National Security Council on Friday to discuss the situation, was expected to attend Saturday’s parliamentary session on extending the Turkish troop deployment in the region. Parliament is expect to pass the measure.

The Iraqi army’s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanmi arrived in Turkey on Saturday for talks with his Turkish counterpart, General Hulusi Akar, state-run Anadolu agency reported.

It said they would discuss the referendum, measures to protect Iraq’s territorial integrity and a joint anti-terror fight.

The Turkish army launched a highly visible military drill on Monday near the Habur border crossing to Iraq. Military sources said the drill was due to last until Sept. 26, a day after the planned vote.

The second stage of that operation was continuing with the participation of additional units, the Turkish armed forces said in a written statement on Saturday.

Turkey has for years been northern Iraq’s main link to the outside world. It has built strong trade ties with the semi-autonomous region, which exports hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day through Turkey to international markets.

(Additional reporting by Maher Chmaytelli in Baghdad; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Edmund Blair)

Turkish newspaper staff remanded in custody over coup attempt links: CNN Turk

FILE PHOTO: Police officers carry security barriers in front of the Zaman newspaper headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey March 6, 2016. REUTERS/ Osman Orsal

ANKARA (Reuters) – A Turkish court has remanded in custody for another two months 21 of the 30 journalists and newspaper executives from Turkish newspaper Zaman which was shut down after last year’s failed coup, broadcaster CNN Turk said on Tuesday.

The former employees of the Zaman newspaper are charged with “membership of an armed terror organization” and “attempting to overthrow” the government, parliament and the constitutional order through their links to cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Zaman was affiliated with Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric and former ally of President Tayyip Erdogan. Gulen is blamed by Ankara for instigating the failed July 2016 coup, but denies any involvement.

Zaman was first seized by the Turkish government in March 2016 before the coup attempt, and then closed down by a government decree.

The indictment calls for three consecutive life sentences for the Zaman staff on charges of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, the Turkish parliament and the Turkish government, and says the newspaper exceeded the limits of press freedom and freedom of expression.

The 21 people remanded in custody had already been jailed for over a year pending trial. CNN Turk said the trial was postponed to Nov. 13.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Ece Toksabay and Ken Ferris)

Turkey threatens sanctions over Kurdish independence vote

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signs a guest book just before a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Craig Ruttle/Pool

By Umit Bektas

HABUR BORDER CROSSING, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan threatened to impose sanctions against Kurdish northern Iraq over a planned independence vote, piling economic pressure on Kurdish authorities after Turkish troops deployed near the main commercial border crossing.

Turkey, home to the largest Kurdish population in the region, has warned that any breakup of neighboring Iraq or Syria could lead to a global conflict, and is due to prepare a formal response on Friday, three days before the referendum.

Erdogan said the Turkish cabinet and security council would discuss Ankara’s options. They will “put forward their own stance on what kind of sanctions we can impose, or if we will,” he told reporters in New York, according to Anadolu news agency.

“But these will not be ordinary,” Erdogan said.

Iraqi Kurdish authorities have defied growing international pressure to call off the vote, which Iraq’s neighbors fear will fuel unrest among their own Kurdish populations. Western allies say it could detract from the fight against Islamic State.

On Monday, the Turkish army launched a highly visible military drill near the Habur border crossing, which military sources said was due to last until Sept. 26, a day after the planned referendum.

Around 100 tanks and military vehicles, backed by rocket launchers and radar, deployed in open farmlands near the frontier, guns pointed south toward the Kurdish mountains.

The military buildup hit the Turkish lira, which weakened on Tuesday beyond 3.500 to the dollar, before recovering on Wednesday to around 3.465. But it has so far had little impact on lines of trucks queuing to cross into territory controlled by the Kurdish Regional Government in north Iraq.

Turkey, for years the KRG’s main link to the outside world, has built strong trade ties with the semi-autonomous region which exports hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day through Turkey to international markets.

Russian oil major Rosneft will also invest in pipelines to export gas to Turkey and Europe.

SANCTIONS “DOOM”

Erdogan did not spell out what sanctions Turkey might be considering, but truck drivers waiting at Habur on Wednesday said they feared for their livelihoods if cross-border trade, crucial to the local economy, dries up.

“I have four kids, I am 35-years-old, and there is neither a job nor a factory in the region,” said tanker driver Abdurrahman Yakti, who carries crude oil from Iraq to Turkey’s Iskenderun Rafinery in the southeastern province of Hatay.

“We are stuck with this job. If this gate closes this would be our doom.”

Ferhat, who has transported dry cargo across the border for 10 years, said closing Habur would paralyze Turkey’s southeast.

“It would not affect only people like me who work for 1,500 lira ($430 per month), but also the businessmen. We bring crude oil from Iraq, but just as many trucks are carrying goods from Istanbul and all around Turkey to Iraq,” he said.

The show of military force at the border and the threat of sanctions reflects the depth of concern in Turkey that Monday’s referendum could embolden the outlawed Kurdish PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey’s southeast since 1984.

The Turkish air force frequently strikes against PKK units operating from the mountains of northern Iraq, and limited detachments of Turkish infantry have made forays across the frontier in the past.

Turkey stationed troops in Bashiqa near Mosul, ignoring protests from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, ahead of the military campaign to drive Islamic State out of the northern Iraqi city.

Ankara also sees itself as protector of Iraq’s Turkmen ethnic minority, with particular focus on the oil city of Kirkuk which Kurds seized in 2014 as Iraqi troops retreated in the face of Islamic State advances.

Erdogan said Kurdish determination to hold the referendum disregarded Turkey’s support for KRG leadership until now.

“We will announce our final thoughts on the issue with the cabinet meeting and national security council decision,” Erdogan said. “I think it would be better if they saw this.”

(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Dominic Evans, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Turkish tanks trained on northern Iraq in show of force ahead of vote

A Turkish soldier on a tank is seen during a military exercise near the Turkish-Iraqi border in Silopi, Turkey, September 19, 2017. Dogan News Agency, DHA via REUTERS

SIRNAK, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkish troops dug in on the country’s southern border on Tuesday and turned their weapons toward Kurdish-run northern Iraq, where authorities plan an independence referendum in defiance of Ankara and Western powers.

Tanks and rocket launchers mounted on armored vehicles faced the Iraqi frontier, about 2 km (one mile) away, and mechanical diggers tore up agricultural fields for the army to set up positions in the flat, dry farmlands.

The military drill, launched without warning on Monday, is due to last until Sept. 26, Turkish military sources said, a day after the planned referendum for Kurdish independence in northern Iraq.

A Reuters reporter saw four armored vehicles carrying heavy weaponry and soldiers taking positions in specially dug areas, their weapons directed across the border. A generator and satellite dish could be seen at one location.

The show of force reflects the scale of concern in Turkey, which has the largest Kurdish population in the region, that the vote could embolden the outlawed Kurdish PKK which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey’s southeast.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last week Ankara would not shy away from using force if necessary, and the showdown has hit the Turkish lira. It weakened beyond 3.5 to the dollar on Tuesday for the first time in four weeks.

Turkey has long seen itself as protector of the ethnic Turkmen minority, with particular concern about the oil city of Kirkuk where Kurds have extended their control since seizing the city when Islamic State overwhelmed Iraqi forces in 2014.

OIL CITY

Tensions spread to Turkish markets.

“The increasing tension before the referendum in northern Iraq continues to effect lira negatively,” Kapital FX Research Assistant Manager Enver Erkan said.

Cross-border trade, however, appeared to continue. Despite the nearby military maneuvers a kilometer line of traffic, mostly trucks and cargo, queued to enter Iraq at the Habour border gate.

Turkey’s strong economic ties to the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) will weigh on any response from Ankara. The KRG pumps hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day and has approved plans for Russian oil major Rosneft to invest in pipelines to export gas to Turkey and Europe.

The military exercises came as Turkey, the central government in Baghdad and their shared neighbor Iran all stepped up protests and warnings about the independence referendum in the semi-autonomous Kurdish northern Iraq.

The United States and other Western countries have also voiced concerns and asked Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani to call off the vote, citing fears the referendum could distract attention from the fight against Islamic State militants.

Iraq’s Supreme Federal Court ordered Barzani to suspend the vote and approved Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s demand to consider “the breakaway of any region or province from Iraq as unconstitutional”, his office said on Monday.

Turkey has brought forward to Friday a cabinet meeting and a session of its national security council to consider possible action.

(Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Dominic Evans and Ralph Boulton)

Turkey begins trial of hunger striking teachers amid protests

Riot police detain protesters during the trial of two Turkish teachers, who went on a hunger strike over their dismissal under a government decree following last year's failed coup, outside of a courthouse in Ankara, Turkey, September 14, 2017. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

By Ece Toksabay

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish police used tear gas to disperse protesters outside a courthouse in Ankara on Thursday at the start of the trial of two teachers who have been on hunger strike since losing their jobs in a crackdown following last year’s failed coup.

Literature professor Nuriye Gulmen and primary school teacher Semih Ozakca have been surviving on liquids and supplements for six months, and doctors have described their condition as dangerously weak.

They were detained in May over alleged links to the militant leftist DHKP-C group, deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey.

Neither they nor their original lawyers were in court at the start of the hearing. The gendarmerie said the defendants might try to escape from the courtroom, despite their weakened state, and arrest warrants were issued this week for 18 of their lawyers.

Police attempted to break up the protests using tear gas, and riot police were present inside and outside the building. At least 20 protesters were detained, being dragged along the ground in the process.

“The first obstacle before a fair trial was the detention of their lawyers, which also served as a veiled intimidation attempt at the judges trying them. Now they are not brought to court, in an open breach of their right to defend,” said Baris Yarkadas, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

At least a hundred lawyers were present at the courthouse to defend the teachers, along with CHP parliamentarians and the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

The teachers have said their hunger strike aimed to draw attention to the plight of roughly 150,000 people suspended or sacked since last July’s failed putsch, which President Tayyip Erdogan blames on followers of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulen denies any involvement.

Last month, the European Court of Human Rights rejected a request by the two teachers to order Ankara to release them on health grounds.

Since the failed coup attempt, some 50,000 people including journalists, opposition figures, civil servants and others have been detained in the crackdown.

Rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies accuse the government of using the coup as a pretext to muzzle dissent.

Ankara says the purges are necessary due to the gravity of the threats it faces.

(Writing by Ece Toksabay and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Turkey will take its own security measures after Russia defense deal: Erdogan

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan greets mayors from his ruling AK Party during a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, September 13, 2017. Yasin Bulbul/Presidential Palace/Handout via REUTERS

ANKARA (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan dismissed on Wednesday Western concern over Turkey’s deal to procure an S-400 air defense system from Russia and said the NATO member will continue to take its own security measures.

“They went crazy because we made the S-400 agreement. What were we supposed to do, wait for you? We are taking and will take all our measures on the security front,” Erdogan said.

Western governments have expressed concern over the deal as it cannot be integrated into the NATO system. Turkey has said that NATO allies had not presented a “financially effective” offer on alternative missile defense systems.

Erdogan said in July that the deal had been signed, although the deal appears to have been drawn out since then, due to issues over financing. Turkish media quoted Erdogan this week as saying he and Russian President Vladimir Putin were determined that the agreement should proceed.

The decision to procure the Russian system comes as Turkey finds itself frequently at odds with NATO allies, particularly the United States and Germany. Ankara has been angered by U.S. support for the YPG Kurdish fighters in the battle against Islamic State in Syria.

The U.S. Pentagon said it had expressed concerns to Turkey about the deal.

“We have relayed our concerns to Turkish officials regarding the potential purchase of the S-400. A NATO interoperable missile defense system remains the best option to defend Turkey from the full range of threats in its region,” spokesman Johnny Michael said in a statement.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Turkey cautions citizens about travel to ‘anti-Turkey’ Germany

FILE PHOTO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel greets Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the beginning of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Bernd Von Jutrczenka/POOL/File Photo

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey cautioned its citizens on Saturday to take care when traveling to Germany, citing what it said was an upswing in anti-Turkish sentiment ahead of a German national election later this month.

The advisory is likely to further exacerbate tensions between the two NATO allies, whose ties have soured following last year’s failed coup against Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his subsequent crackdown on alleged coup supporters.

“The political leadership campaigns in Germany are based on anti-Turkey sentiment and preventing our country’s EU membership. The political atmosphere… has actually been under the effects of far-right and even racist rhetoric for some time,” Turkey’s foreign mininstry said in a statement.

Last weekend German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a televised election debate that she would seek an end to Turkey’s membership talks with the European Union, in an apparent shift of her position that infuriated Ankara.

Merkel, whose conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) have long been skeptical about Turkey’s EU ambitions, is expected to win a fourth term in office in Germany’s Sept. 24 election.

“Turkish citizens who live in, or who plan to travel to, Germany should be cautious and act prudently in cases of possible incidents, behavior or verbal assaults of xenophobia and racism,” the foreign ministry said.

The advisory marks a reversal of roles. Earlier this year Germany warned its own citizens traveling to Turkey about increased tensions and protests ahead of a Turkish referendum on April 16 which considerably expanded Erdogan’s powers.

Merkel and other EU leaders have strongly criticized Erdogan’s actions since the failed coup, saying his purges of Turkey’s state institutions and armed forces amount to a deliberate attempt to stifle criticism.

More than 50,000 people have been detained and 150,000 suspended in the crackdown, including journalists and opposition figures. Some German nationals have also been targeted.

Turkey says the purges are necessary given the extent of the security threat it faces.

 

(Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz and Dirimcan Barut; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Gareth Jones)

 

Erdogan urges U.S. to review ‘political’ charges against Turkish ex-minister

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul, Turkey September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan urged the United States on Friday to review charges against a Turkish former minister for violating U.S.-Iran sanctions, saying Ankara had never agreed to comply with the embargo and the prosecution was politically motivated.

“There are very peculiar smells coming from this issue,” Erdogan said.

Former economy minister Zafer Caglayan and the ex-head of a state-owned Turkish bank were charged with conspiring to violate the sanctions by illegally moving hundreds of millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on Tehran’s behalf.

The indictment, announced this week, marked the first time an ex-government member with close ties to Erdogan had been charged in an investigation that has strained ties between Washington and Ankara.

“For the moment, it is impossible to evaluate this within legal logic,” Erdogan told reporters at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport. “I see this step against our former economy minister as a step against the Turkish Republic.

“We didn’t decide to impose sanctions on Iran. We have bilateral ties with Iran, sensitive relations,” he said, adding he had told former U.S. President Barack Obama as much, when the sanctions were in force.

“We said to the relevant people, we said we would not take part in sanctions… These steps are purely political.”

Prosecutors in New York said on Wednesday they had charged Caglayan and former Halkbank general manager Suleyman Aslan and two others with “conspiring to use the U.S. financial system to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of transactions on behalf of the government of Iran and other Iranian entities, which were barred by United States sanctions.”

The charges stem from the case against Reza Zarrab, a wealthy Turkish-Iranian gold trader who was arrested in the United States over sanctions evasion last year. He has pleaded not guilty.

Reuters was not able to reach Caglayan or Aslan for comment.

Relations between Washington and NATO ally Turkey, an important partner in tackling the Syrian conflict, were strained after a failed coup against Erdogan in July last year and the president’s subsequent crackdown on opposition.

“The United States needs to revise this decision (to charge Caglayan),” Erdogan said.

“I hope we’ll get a chance to discuss this issue in the United States. You may be a big nation, but being a just nation is something else. Being a just nation requires the legal system to work fairly.”

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Ralph Boulton)