Turkey police summons FBI representative in Ankara
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) - Turkey's national police force on Wednesday summoned US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) representative in Ankara over an ongoing trial in a New York court involving the Turkish business tycoon Reza Zarrab and executive of the state-owned Halk bank accused of evading sanctions on Iran.
Turkey's General Directorate of Security asked for the presence of the FBI agent in Ankara to explain the role of a witness in the trial, a former Turkish police officer, Huseyin Korkmaz, reported government-funded Anadolu agency.
Korkmaz was the head of a late 2013 corruption operation targeting Zarrab and over 50 others, including sons of several ministers and their affiliates who allegedly were involved in million-dollar schemes, bribery and illegal transfers of planes-load gold to Iran.
During the trial in Manhattan Federal Court on Tuesday, Korkmaz named Turkey's President and the then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his son Bilal as number 1 in the corruption probe.
He told the court that he received "about" 50 thousand US dollars from the FBI and an amount of money from the Federal Prosecutors' office to help him pay his rent in the US.
Korkmaz was testifying against the Halkbank executive Mehmet Hakan Atilla.
Ankara charges Korkmaz with being a member of the US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen's movement that once had thousands of follower within security forces, bureaucracy and politics, a one-time ally but now a fierce opponent of Erdogan's government.
Korkmaz was arrested for a brief period in February 2016. He later fled Turkey shortly after the July coup attempt by a clique within the military against the government.
Erdogan holds Gulen and his followers responsible for the putsch that killed over 250 civilians and soldiers resisting their rebel counterparts.
The ties between the two NATO allies have soured dramatically over continued US military aid for Kurdish forces battling Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, the arrest of at least two American consular employees by Turkish police and perceived US support to Gulenists.
Editing by Sam A.