WASHINGTON
State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf refuted claims that Washington was behind Turkey’s ongoing graft investigation Friday.
Responding to a reporter at the State Department, Harf said, “Absolutely not, find this attack baseless. We've made it known to Turkish authorities our concerns about these kind of allegations regarding American officials; just completely baseless. Again, this is an internal Turkish matter. We'll keep following it, but I don't have much more on it than that.”
She added, “A sign of a close partnership is the ability to speak frankly when you have disagreements, which we do.”
Harf further stated that Turkey is a “very important NATO ally”, while reiterating the US’ call for “Turkey to follow and meet the highest standards for transparency, for timeliness and fairness in its judicial system.”
Launched on December 17, the investigation has led to several high-profile arrests, including the sons of the former Turkish Economy and Interior ministers, and the head of Halkbank, a state-owned bank.
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