Turkey and the US have become involved in a consular row, mutually scaling back visa services.
The American mission in Ankara said that it had suspended all non-immigrant visa services for “reassessing” Turkey’s commitment to staff security. In return, Turkey’s embassy in Washington suspended “all visa services”.
The latest spat began when a US consulate worker in Istanbul was held over suspected links to a cleric blamed for last year’s failed coup in Turkey. Washington condemned the move as baseless and detrimental to bilateral relations.
The arrested consulate employee was a male Turkish citizen. The row prompted a 4% fall in Turkey’s main share index while the Turkish lira tumbled more than 2.5% against the dollar.
In its statement on Sunday, the US embassy in Ankara said: “Recent events have forced the United States government to reassess the commitment of government of Turkey to the security of US mission and personnel. In order to minimize the number of visitors to our embassy and consulates while this assessment proceeds, effective immediately we have suspended all non-immigrant visa services at all US diplomatic facilities in Turkey.”
Only people permanently moving to the US will now be able to apply for visas.
Turkey holds the reputation of detaining hostages in its bilateral disputes with countries.
An American pastor was arrested in Turkey a year ago. Several German nationals are also in custody as Ankara presses the US to extradite the cleric it accuses of masterminding the coup, and urges Berlin to deport Turkish citizens who have claimed asylum there.
Germany has already warned its nationals against travelling to Turkey. There could now be a similar response from Washington.
