US embassy in Turkey to suspend its work due to security threat

The US embassy in Ankara. Photo: Burhan Ozbilici / AP Photo
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The US embassy in Turkey will be closed to the public on March 5, 2018, due to a security threat, a notice on the website of the diplomatic mission says.

Earlier, the US State Department resorted to such restrictions due to information from the intelligence on possible attacks on the mission at its staff in the Turkish capital as well as in the consulate in Istanbul.

In 2013, the embassy was raided by a suicide bomber from a radical leftist group; a security guard was killed in the attack then.

Now, the relations of the two allies in the NATO are coming through hard times. Turkey still claims that the USA stops supplying weapons and rendering financial assistance to Kurdish units in northern Syria, to military and political organizations whom it considers “terrorist” ones.

Anti-American sentiments are growing among the Turkish public, so do the risks for US citizens and diplomatic missions.