Spokesperson Kalın: Trial of Sarraf is 'Political'

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Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın has spoken to France 24 about trial of Rıza Sarraf.

As to the tension between Turkey and the United States, Kalın said:

“We have strategic alliance with the US going back in history but over the past few years, we have two main problems. First, the US support to the PYD (Democratic Union Party) and YPG (People’s Protection Units) under the cover of fighting DEAŞ (ISIS –Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-) in Syria.

“Secondly, the Gülenist ring in the US. The Gulenists are settled in the US and they use the system for their advantage through charter schools, visa fraud and money laundering.

“Now they use the US system to counter attack Turkey. For instance, cases of Zarrab (Sarraf) or Halkbank, which is one of the public banks in Turkey, are part of it”.

“The US knows all these”

Concerning the trial of Sarraf, Kalın commented “Our president or Zarrab have no link with this trial. They try to damage Mr. President’s reputation”.

In response to the question “Is this a political case?”, Kalın responded “Yes, this is a political trial. This is absolutely a political trial”.

Responding to the question “This is a very serious claim. Are you saying that the US legal system targets your president?”, Kalın said:

“We’ve been keep saying this. This is a highly politically motivated trial. We are dependent on outside energy. We had to do this business with Iran during these sanctions. We told them that we would have to do it by some other ways. Our banks and minister of economy got involved in it. The US officials know all these.

“Now, after 3-4 years, they appear before Turkey with the case brought to agenda by Gulenists and was then rejected. Now they take the same accusations and they do the trial in the US”. (AS/TK)