USA asks Turkey to release NASA scientist accused of coup
US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, returned today to ask his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavusoglu, for the release of the Turkish-American scientist from NASA Serkan Golge, imprisoned for his alleged links with the instigators of the failed coup d'état. State of 2016 in Turkey.
Speaking to the press, Pompeo explained that, during his meeting with Çavusoglu, he welcomed the positive moment in the bilateral relationship after the release in October of the missionary Andrew Brunson, who was facing 35 years in prison in Turkey for accusations of espionage and terrorism.
"We are still very concerned about the unjust detention in Turkey of personnel employed by the US and of US citizens, including NASA scientist Serkan Golge," he said.
Speaking of the "personnel employed by the United States", Pompeo was referring to three Turkish employees of the US diplomatic missions who were arrested in 2017 accused of collaborating in the coup d'état.
For his part, Golge was arrested on July 16, 2016, hours after the coup, and in February of this year he was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for his alleged relationship with the brotherhood of the Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen, exiled in USA and to which Ankara blames the coup.
According to the court that condemned him, the proof of his ties with the brotherhood is an account that he kept in the bank Bank Asya, flagship of the economic empire of the Gülenist network.
Relations between Ankara and Washington, military partners in NATO, have seen an apparent improvement since the release of Brunson, released by a Turkish court after spending two years in prison awaiting trial.
Brunson's case exacerbated tensions in the bilateral relationship because the US He turned his liberation into a diplomatic cause, while Turkey shielded himself from the independence of his courts.
Beyond the US citizens imprisoned in Turkey, Pompeo and Çavusoglu spoke today about the October murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and agreed on the need to "work together" to reduce the intensity of the conflict in Syria, the State Department said in a statement. release.
