Turkey arrests US diplomat over passport forgery
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In a step that could further strain US-Turkish relations, Ankara arrests an American diplomat over forging a US passport for a Syrian national.
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Passengers are seen at Istanbul Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 11, 2020 (Anadolu)
Turkish police have arrested and incarcerated a US diplomat working for Washington's consulate in Beirut over issuing a fake passport to a Syrian national, Turkish media reported Wednesday.
The authorities initially detained the diplomat, who only had initials D.J.K. revealed, at Istanbul Airport on November 11, state media cited police sources as saying.
Ankara charged the US national of providing a forged American passport to a Syrian who had been trying to fly from Istanbul to Germany.
In exchange for the forgery, the American received $10,000 at Istanbul Airport, and CCTV cameras captured the handoff, reports said.
The US embassy in Ankara did not make any immediate comment.
The Daily Sabah noted that diplomats' customary immunity from prosecution did not apply in countries in which they have no accreditation.
According to the newspaper, that gave Turkey the full right to detain the diplomat accredited to work in Lebanon.
Ankara's arrest of the US diplomat threatens to further strain its relations with Washington, which have been at a constant deterioration since the election of President Joe Biden.
Erdogan: Turkish-US Ties "Not Healthy"
On September 23, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country's relationship with the United States is not a healthy one, considering that the US must "sort out" issues over Ankara's purchase of Russian S-400 defense systems, according to Haberturk TV.
It is also reported that Erdogan told reporters, on the sidelines of UN General Assembly meetings in New York, that Turkey paid $1.4 billion for F-35s, which it has not received yet, and this is something the US must first sort out.
