Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım criticized Washington’s move to halt U.S. visas issued to Turkey and said that Washington would not seek permission from the U.S. to detain suspects.
“Unfortunately, the U.S. has taken a decision that is incompatible with our alliance and announced that it suspended the issuance of visas to our country. The suspension punishes citizens, and this is not appropriate,” Yıldırım said on Tuesday.
The premier urged that the U.S. visa services suspension problem had to be resolved immediately.
“In a recent letter to the Ministry of the Interior, there was a request for U.S. embassies to increase the security of their missions. We welcomed this request and informed the embassy that we would increase the security measures taken. The ambassador replied saying that they had no security problems. The fact that visas were suspended in this way is contradictory,” he added.
“This is not a convincing move. We initiated legal proceedings for some employees working in American missions under the scope of FETÖ investigations. Turkey is a state of law. We will not seek U.S. permission to detain suspects,” Yıldırım said.
The U.S. embassy in Ankara said on Sunday night it was suspending non-immigrant visa services after the arrest of a locally employed U.S. consulate employee in Istanbul last week.
Yıldırım stated that Turkey’s operation in Idlib will ensure safety and security in the region, and prevent terror activities.
“Turkey’s cross-border activities in Syria’s Idlib are designed to create control points for future deployments,” the premier said.
“The aim of activities in Idlib are to prevent a migration wave into Turkey,” he added.
He said that reconnaissance activities were launched on Oct. 8 by Turkish troops and that Free Syrian Army (FSA) troops had entered the region first.
