U.S. ambassador to Turkey John Bass has, since his assignment in October 2014, continually overstepped his diplomatic boundaries, and as he prepares to leave his post, has set bilateral Turkish- American relations ablaze.
Bass, who previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, has been a central figure who continually and provocatively came out in support of terrorist organizations during his three-year tenure as U.S. envoy in Ankara, before being declared by Turkey as “persona non grata.”
Despite existing irrefutable evidence to the contrary, Bass has, at several occasions, denied that the U.S. was providing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its Syrian affiliate the Democratic Union Party (PYD) terrorist organizations with logistic support and arms, saying: “Claims that the U.S. government has supported Daesh are false. The U.S. government has not provided neither the YPG nor the PKK with weapons or explosives. Period.”
Throughout his tenure as U.S. Ambassador in Ankara, Bass made controversial remarks that incited outrage such as criticizing the assignment of administrators to monitor municipalities that were turned into bases for PKK terrorists. Bass also came out in support of the treacherous manifesto signed by academicians and tweeted support for the recognition of what he called an “Armenian genocide.”
Bass also came out in support of traitor Can Dündar who divulged government secrets before deleting his tweet after receiving critical responses from social media users.
He also protected Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) terrorist Metin Topuz who was remanded over terrorism charges, and last but not least, he overstepped his boundaries by harshly pointing fingers at some media foundations at a meeting with journalists in Istanbul.
Turkey- U.S. relations experienced yet another crisis on Monday when Turkey's Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül refused U.S. Ambassador to Turkey John Bass’ offer to meet, after the United States said it suspended all non-immigrant visa operations in Turkey.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry summoned Washington’s top diplomat in Ankara on Monday to hear the case regarding the U.S. decision to suspend processing non-immigrant visa applications, according to Turkish diplomatic sources.
Ministry officials urged U.S. Embassy Undersecretary Philip Kosnett to have the embassy reverse the move, as it both inconveniences people and will fuel an “unnecessary escalation” of tensions, said sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Umit Yalçın late Sunday night also spoke on the phone with U.S. Ambassador John Bass, who is out of Ankara, with Kosnett acting in his stead.
