We don't consider Ambassador Bass as US representative: Erdoğan

Ankara does not consider U.S. Ambassador John Bass to be Washington's representative in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Oct. 10, in his latest comment on the ongoing visa crisis between the two countries.

“The ambassador is currently paying farewell visits but neither our ministers, nor the parliament speaker, nor myself have accepted these farewell visits because we do not see him as the representative of the U.S. in Turkey,” Erdoğan said at a press conference alongside his Serbian counterpart in Belgrade.

He also questioned how “spies had infiltrated” into the U.S. Consulate, referring to the arrest of a staff member that triggered the crisis between the two NATO allies.

“How did those spies infiltrate into the U.S. Consulate? If they did not infiltrate, who put them there? No state would allow such spies that could threaten it from the inside,” Erdoğan said.

Source: HDN