The book by former US national security adviser John Bolton contained “misleading” and “manipulative representations” of conversations between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his US counterpart Donald Trump. This was announced the night before, on June 24, by the head of the communications and public relations department of the Turkish President’s administration, Fahrettin Altun.
According to him, Erdogan and Trump have made great efforts to establish ties between the two countries, and the US President “has done much more listening to a key NATO ally than some of the previous heads of administration” in the White House.
In his book, Bolton wrote that Erdogan gave Trump a note that the Turkish state-owned Halkbank, which was the subject of an investigation by the US attorney for the southern district of New York for violating US sanctions against Iran, was innocent. “Then Trump told Erdogan that he would take care of everything, explaining that the prosecutors of the southern district of New York are not his people, but (Barak’s) people) Obama, and this problem will be solved when his people replace them, ” Bolton wrote.
In connection with the scandal that broke out because of this, Jeffrey Berman was forced to resign as us attorney in the specified district last weekend, the Reuters news agency said on Thursday.
“The recent publication of a book authored by a former senior American official includes misleading one-sided and manipulative representations of our leader Erdogan’s conversations with US President Donald Trump,” Altun said in a statement.
The Halkbank case was one of the subjects of dispute between Ankara and Washington, which in recent years have differed on some issues, including Syria and Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems. Altun noted that Erdogan defends the national interests of Turkey at every opportunity, “both publicly and privately,” including the problem of “Halkbank.”
US prosecutors have accused Turkish state-owned Halkbank of using payment systems and shell companies in Iran, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates from 2012 to 2016 to avoid US sanctions against Iran.
