Markets in Istanbul tumbled after the U.S. and Turkey
stopped issuing visas for each other’s citizens in a spat related to
last year’s failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
deepening divisions between NATO members already at odds over the war in
Syria.
The Trump
administration halted visa services for Turks on Sunday, citing the Oct.
4 arrest of a Turkish citizen employed at the U.S. consulate in
Istanbul for alleged involvement in the July 2016 putsch attempt.
Erdogan’s government responded in kind within hours,
repeating verbatim much of the U.S.
statement.
“The
implementation of a such a decision by the U.S. ambassador in Ankara is
very saddening,” Erdogan said at a televised press conference in Kiev,
Ukraine. He said that he ordered Turkey’s foreign ministry to
reciprocate the move. “Turkey is a state of law, not a tribal state,” he
said.
Relations have soured since the foiled coup, which Erdogan
blames on a self-exiled cleric based in the U.S., Fethullah Gulen. The
U.S. has refused Turkey’s request to extradite Gulen, citing lack of
evidence. Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul on Monday rejected the U.S.
ambassador’s request for a meeting as prosecutors “invited” another
consulate worker in to testify, AHaber TV reported. The pro-government
channel said the employee’s wife and child had been detained, but it
didn’t specify the worker’s whereabouts.
Read more: How Turkey-U.S. ties frayed-- a QuickTake Q&A
The U.S. Embassy’s press service in the capital Ankara declined to comment.
“Problems
that have been accumulating between the countries for a long time are
starting to snowball,” Tuncay Ozilhan, head of the advisory council of
Tusiad, one of of Turkey’s most influential business lobbies, said by
phone.
The lira dropped 3.2 percent to 3.7334 against the dollar
as of 5:23 p.m. in Istanbul, after plunging as much as 6.6 percent. The
benchmark
Borsa Istanbul 100 Index of stocks declined 3 percent.
Trump, Extradition
Both sides said “recent events” had forced them to “reassess
the commitment” of the other to the security of diplomatic facilities
and personnel. Only two weeks ago, President Donald Trump praised
Erdogan when they met at the United Nations in New York, saying that
he’s “becoming a friend of mine” and that “frankly, he’s getting high
marks.”
The U.S. last week called the charges against the worker
“wholly without merit,” saying it was “deeply disturbed” by the arrest
and “by leaks from Turkish government sources seemingly aimed at trying
the employee in the media rather than a court of law.” Turkey
responded by saying the arrested citizen wasn’t part of the regular diplomatic corps but a “local employee.”
“If
this fight with the U.S. continues, country risk won’t decline
regardless of policies in other areas,” said Ozlem Derici, founder of
Spinn Consulting in Istanbul.
The visa spat comes as Turkish
troops are preparing to deepen their involvement next door in Syria,
where Turkey is planning a joint mission with Russia and Iran to create a
combat-free zone in the Idlib province. Erdogan vowed Sunday to prevent
stateless Kurds, who’ve been battling Turkish forces for decades, from
creating a “terror corridor” from Iraq to the Mediterranean.
Turkey
has also rebuffed the U.S. over charges that a former economy minister
and a state bank conspired to help Iran launder hundreds of millions of
dollars through the U.S. financial system, as well as its decision to
buy a Russian missile-defense system that isn’t compatible with NATO.
“I
would expect that there will be some sort of de-escalation at the
leadership level -- Trump and Erdogan will speak or meet,” said Murat
Yurtbilir, who specializes in Turkish affairs at the Australian National
University. “But the underlying problems won’t go away: the Gulen
issue, Turkey’s slow switch toward Russia’s policy in Syria, and the
economy. ”
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said at a
briefing on Sept. 27 that the U.S. had received “several requests” for
Gulen’s extradition, but that it had been “a while” since officials
talked about the issue.
Russia, Iran
Erdogan in July
accused
foreigners of attempting to break Turkey apart and vowed to crush
“agents” acting against his country. He gained sweeping powers in April
after a tight referendum that critics said was fraudulent. A Council of
Europe agency has since put Turkey on its watchlist, saying crackdowns
on opponents have compromised human rights and the rule of law.
In recent months, Erdogan has
increased coordination
with Russia and Iran amid deepening tensions with the U.S., exacerbated
by Washington’s decision to deliver arms to Kurdish groups that Turkey
views as terrorists.
More than 37,000 U.S. citizens traveled to Turkey in 2016, about 1.7 percent of the total and down from 88,301 in 2015,
according to
the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Turkey has been attracting fewer
visitors since 2014 amid concerns about terrorism, regional instability
and the failed coup. The U.S. tourist office doesn’t break out the
number of Turkish visitors on its website.
The Trump
administration’s visa ban puts Turkey in the same boat as Chad, Iran,
Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen, which have all had U.S.
travel restrictions imposed over
terrorism concerns.
"Turkey,
which has been in the western camp since the 1940s, is lumped together
with these countries?" said Yurtbilir. "This is the lowest level in
Turkish-U.S. relations."
— With assistance by Garfield Clinton
Reynolds, Ros Krasny, Bernie Kohn, David Tweed, Kerim Karakaya, Taylan
Bilgic, Daniel Ten Kate, and Ruth Pollard