Rubio voices US concerns to Turkey after arrest of Istanbul mayor

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By Humeyra Pamuk

MIAMI (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday he expressed concern to Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan over protests and detentions in Turkey following the arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul.

Sunday’s arrest of President Tayyip Erdogan’s biggest political rival, pending trial for graft, sparked the largest anti-government protests in a decade, prompting mass arrests nationwide.

“We’re watching, we’ve expressed concern, we don’t like to see instability like that in the governance of any country that’s such a close ally, especially,” Rubio told reporters on an airplane returning to Washington.

“We watch the same news reports everybody else sees about what’s going on. We’re certainly concerned about these protests and some of the reports.”

Turkey’s main opposition party has called for protests to continue. Erdogan, who trails Imamoglu in some polls, has dismissed the protests as a “show” and warned of legal consequences for protesters.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said 1,879 people had been detained since the protests erupted last Wednesday, with 260 jailed by courts pending trial.

Rubio and Fidan met in Washington on Tuesday as Ankara seeks warmer ties with the administration of President Donald Trump.

“I expressed concerns regarding recent arrests and protests in Turkey,” Rubio said on X after meeting Fidan, but a Turkish diplomatic source disputed the characterization.

“I did raise it, with the foreign minister and exactly in the words that I’m using now,” Rubio said, while adding that the United States was not going to comment on “every single” domestic political matter in Turkey.

Trump had “a very good working relationship with Erdogan in the first administration. They would like to restart that,” Rubio added. “They are a NATO ally. We would like to cooperate with them in Syria and other places.”

Widening disagreements between the two long-standing treaty allies have led to ties between the United States and Turkey drifting away from a strategic partnership in recent years.

Former President Joe Biden’s administration kept Turkey at arm’s length over what it saw as the fellow NATO member’s close ties with Russia.

Under Trump, who views Moscow much more favorably, Ankara hopes for a closer relationship with Washington.

During his first term, Trump initially ignored advice from aides to impose sanctions on Turkey for Ankara’s acquisition of Russian S-400 air defence missile systems in 2019.

He then took the step in 2020.

That acquisition also led to Turkey’s removal from the F-35 jet program, in which it was a manufacturer and buyer. Ankara says its removal is unjust and illegal, and has demanded to rejoin, or be reimbursed for its investment in the program.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Kanishka Singh and Clarence Fernandez)