Ankara lashes out at US envoy over security alerts: 'Get your filthy hands off Turkey'
Turkey’s rhetoric against Washington and several European capitals grows more belligerent, with the interior minister calling out the American ambassador.
Turkish ministers lashed out at the United States and several European countries on Friday amid a controversy over Western security alerts and the closure of diplomatic missions.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticized Western capitals for failing to share concrete information about the security threat that prompted Western security alerts and the closure of European diplomatic missions.
“If they want to paint Turkey as an unstable country, as a country where there is a terrorist threat, this does not fit friendship,” Cavusoglu told reporters, describing the security alerts and closures as “intentional.”
Earlier this week, the US Embassy in Ankara and several European diplomatic missions issued security warnings against potential “terrorist” attacks by jihadist groups targeting Westerners in response to Quran-burning protests across Europe over the past few weeks. Some of the European missions, foreign cultural centers and even foreign schools were closed down temporarily this week over the security threats.
