ANKARA
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey John Bass has rejected allegations that an American consulate member in the Turkish southern province of Adana is involved in espionage in the country.
Bass clarified the U.S. position on the serious allegation in comments to the media in Ankara Monday.
Turkish dailies had reported recently that a security manager Sinan Seyfettinoglu, who works at the American Consulate in Adana, was allegedly involved in spying in Turkey. According to the papers, Seyfettinoglu regularly paid money to a local media person, who had close relations with Turkish security officials.
This relationship with a local media contact had allegedly helped Seyfettinoglu get strategic information about the Turkey military, including its ammunition, Syrian refugee camps on the Turkish border, developments on the Syrian-Turkish border, and identification of some Assad regime opponents.
However, Bass refuted all charges. “The specific allegations of espionage are unfounded,” he said.
“As a matter of course, the embassy and our consulates have engaged with many different peoples in the society to understand what is happening in the society, what is happening around us,” the envoy added.
He said that it was “the normal business any U.S. embassy” to establish contact with people from different parts of the country for a number of reasons, including to establish its own security.
Turkey’s elections
When asked about the upcoming general elections in Turkey, he said: “We are watching this campaign with interest as we do watch electoral campaigns and elections in all of our NATO ally member states.
“We are all countries and societies where government serves the people, not the other way around. We believe the dialogue between the government and their citizens needs to be strong, vibrant and free," Bass said.
He said that the U.S. supported the Turkish people. "We are supporting everyone in this society (who) wants to ensure that this election is free, and fair and competitive, and that all those voters in this election have the opportunity to go to the polls and make an informed choice based on their ability to have access to information about candidates and parties, and issues there are concerned about."
Syria
Bass reminded that Turkey and the U.S. worked together in various sectors, including security.
“We have a very full security agenda which we are working closely with the Turkish government to try to address a terrible scourge of Daesh to promote the peace settlement of this conflict in Syria.”
He described the region as a “challenging security landscape” and recognized Turkey for generously hosting hundreds of thousands of Syrian, Iraqi and other refugees.
Clashes between Iraqi forces, Syrian opposition factions and Daesh have been ongoing since June 2014, when the militant armed group seized Mosul and other territories in Iraq, as well as in Syria.
The move prompted the U.S. to form an international coalition, which has launched numerous airstrikes against Daesh targets in both Iraq and Syria since August.
On Feb. 19, Turkey and the U.S. inked a deal to train-and-equip Syrian opposition forces, that aims to achieve an actual political transformation in the war-torn country on the basis of the Geneva Communique. The Syrian fighters trained in the joint program are expected to fight both Daesh and the Assad regime.
