Stop meddling in domestic affairs: Turkey to US envoy

Ankara, Feb 7 (AFP) Turkey bluntly told the US ambassador today to stop meddling in its domestic affairs after he fired off a strident attack on the country's justice system, in a row between the NATO allies. "Ambassadors should mind their own business. They should stay away from assessments that mean interference in Turkey's judiciary and domestic affairs," Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency. In an interview with local media on Tuesday, US ambassador Francis Ricciardone criticised "the flaws" in the justice system, highlighting "lengthy pre-trial detentions, lack of clarity in presenting charges, lack of transparency". In particular, he took aim at the jailing of scores of military and political figures. "You have your military leaders, who were entrusted with the protection of this country, behind bars as if they were terrorists," Ricciardone said, adding that a number of lawmakers had also suffered the same fate. "You have members of parliament who have been behind bars for a long time, sometimes on unclear charges. You have professors... You have non-violent student protesters protesting tuition hikes behind bars," he added. The comments by Ricciardone, who has had an uneasy relationship with the authorities since his appointment in January 2011, came after a suicide bombing outside the US embassy in Ankara on Friday that was claimed by a radical anti-US left-wing group. Ricciardone today met with a Turkish foreign ministry official in the wake of his comments. "The under-secretary made clear his government's disappointment at what he saw as interference in Turkey's domestic affairs," a US embassy official told AFP following the more than two-hour meeting at the foreign ministry. Huseyin Celik, spokesman for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said: "It is a question of warning the ambassador and drawing his attention (to our concerns on) the issue." But a US diplomatic source told AFP that the mission "has frequent and regular contacts with the Turkish government," indicating that today's meeting was "nothing out of the ordinary". Celik had yesterday criticised the ambassador for "not learning not to overstep his boundaries" despite warnings from the premier since his appointment. Erdogan had called him a "rookie" after Ricciardone raised the issue of jailed dissident journalists in Turkey shortly after his appointment. (AFP) KKM DBR 02072356 NNNN