Türkiye warns citizens traveling to the US could be arbitrarily detained
(Baonghean.vn) - On January 12, the Turkish Foreign Ministry warned its citizens not to travel to the US, citing the risk of arbitrary detention, and advised them to be cautious if they still decide to travel to the US.
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| Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. Photo: AP |
“Turkish citizens traveling to the United States may be subject to arbitrary detention based on evidence from unreliable sources,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The statement came after the US State Department issued a similar warning to its citizens this week, stressing that US citizens planning to travel to Türkiye should consider carefully due to “terrorism and arbitrary detention”.
Ankara previously asserted that the case of the Deputy CEO of Türkiye's Halkbank, who was convicted by a Manhattan federal court in New York on charges of helping Iran evade US economic sanctions, was based on false evidence and was backed by the network of cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Türkiye is America's largest Muslim ally in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and a key ally of the United States in the Middle East. However, in recent months, Ankara and Washington have disagreed on many issues.
In 2017, the two countries stopped issuing visas to each other's citizens for several months following a dispute related to the arrest of two US Consulate employees in Türkiye on charges of links to the failed coup in 2016./.