Some pro-goverment media in Turkey have been accusing Amb Ricciardone for giving a speech to EU ambassadors, and telling them his prediction for Halk Bank is being collapsed, on the 17th of December, when the graft and corruption revelations began. SInce then, several of pro-AKP newspaper launched a campaign to declare Amb. Ricciardone "persona non grata."
Turkish PM Erdogan also accused "some foreign envoys" of provocative actions, in reality, he was clearly referring to the US Ambassador. Erdogan, told supporters in the Black Sea province Samsun: "These recent days, very strangely, ambassadors get involved in some provocative acts. I am calling on them from here, do your job, if you leave your area of duty, this could extend into our government's area of jurisdiction. We do not have to keep you in our country."
When asked, an official from the US State Department commented regarding to these recent accusations about the US Ambassador to Turkey, Francis Ricciardone.
US State official said: “We find the continued false and slanderous attacks by some elements of the Turkish media against our Ambassador, other senior U.S. officials, international media representatives, and private American citizens and groups, to be deeply disturbing."
Official also stated what US government expects from the Turkish government for these media accusations or attacks against Americans. It's quiet interesting for the US administration to tell the Turkish government to disavow these accusations "to separate vitally important relationship" between the countries. US official said: "We hope that the Turkish government will disavow and condemn such attacks and to separate our vitally important relationship from partisan political efforts.”
US State Department official, who didn't want to give a name, also responded the following when asked about US' reaction to the ongoing graft and corruption scandal:
“We have seen these reports and are following the issue. We have no comment on the specifics of these cases, but we would reiterate that we expect Turkey to meet the highest standards for transparency, timeliness, and fairness in its judicial system.
We refer you to the Turkish government for further details.”
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