World Is Doomed Because of U.S. Justice System, Turkeyโs President Warns
Turkish President Tayyip Erdoฤan criticized the U.S. justice system on Friday after a prominent Turkish banker was convicted of profiting by evading the sanctions on Iran, in a trial that has strained the U.S. governmentโs relations with NATOโs largest Muslim country.
The trial included testimony that alleged corruption among high-level Turkish officials, including Erdoฤan, Reuters reported. Erdoฤan accused the U.S. of using the trial and conviction as a means of undermining his countryโs economy and leadership. โIf this is the U.S. understanding of justice, then the world is doomed,โ Erdoฤan said during a news conference.
โThe bilateral accords between us are losing their validity. I am saddened to say this, but this is how it will be from now on,โ he continued. โThe United States is carrying out a chain of plots, and these are not just legal but also economic plots.โ The Turkish leader called on the U.S. to reconsider the verdict.
Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive at Halkbank, was convicted on five of six counts, including bank fraud. He was acquitted on a charge of money laundering.
The verdict comes roughly a week after the U.S. and Turkey mutually lifted visa restrictions put in place amid a months-long diplomatic dispute linked to a failed coup in Turkey in 2016. Erdoฤan has accused Fethullah Gรผlen, a Turkish cleric who resides in the U.S., of being behind the coup. The U.S. governmentโs reluctance to extradite Gรผlen has strained its relations with Turkey.
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Turkeyโs foreign minister, Mevlรผt รavuลoฤlu, called on the U.S. to honor the Turkish governmentโs extradition request in an op-ed published by Foreign Policy in May. โFetullah Gรผlen, who was declared by his cult as the โImam of the Universe,โ has attempted to destroy democracy in Turkey. The people of Turkey expect the U.S. authorities to take effective legal measures against this threat to our security and democracy, as an ally should,โ รavuลoฤlu wrote.
There had been some signs that President Donald Trump would honor the request, but Gรผlen now lives in Pennsylvania.
