Erdoğan: US is Responsible for Visa Crisis

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Responding to a question about the US and Turkey mutually suspending visa services at a press conference in Serbia's capital city of Belgrade, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, “We haven’t started this issue. The US is responsible for this matter and high-ranking officials not meeting with especially our minister of foreign affairs is matter that I find odd”.

“How did the spies infiltrate?”

Erdoğan briefly said:

“How did these spies infiltrate the US Embassy? If these spies didn’t infiltrate the US Embassy, who put them? No state tolerates such spies that threaten the state from the inside”.

“We don’t see the ambassador as the representative of the US”

“[US Ambassador to Turkey John Bass] is paying farewell visits and we didn’t and won’t accept this this visit because we don’t see the him as the representative of the US.

“If the ambassador had made this decision on his own, the US senior management shouldn’t keep him at his post not even for a minute. If my ambassador had done such a thing, we would have fired him already”. (YY/TK)