The Briefing Room
General Category => World News => Topic started by: DemolitionMan on October 21, 2017, 04:03:16 am
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By CARLOTTA GALLOCT. 20, 2017
Americans planning an impromptu visit to Istanbul have been turned back. Board members of one school have had to postpone meetings. A Turkish entrepreneur, after spending two years setting up a business in New York, finds herself in limbo, her visa appointment canceled.
The cases, though apparently relatively few, signal the potential for deeper disruptions since the United States and Turkey suspended visa services two weeks ago in a tit-for-tat dispute over Turkey’s detention of United States consular employees.
This week, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jonathan R. Cohen devoted a whole day to trying to resolve the dispute during a visit to Turkey, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey expressed a desire to end the disagreement. But it appears far from over.
Alarmed at the arrest of two of its locally employed consular staff and the detention of the wife and daughter of a third employee, American officials are demanding assurances that its staff members will not be arrested for carrying out United States business.
They are also demanding that those already arrested be released unless Turkey can provide compelling evidence against them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/world/europe/us-turkey-visa-suspension.html