The increasingly strained alliance between Ankara and Washington took a sharp downward on late Sunday when both governments abruptly announced they were cancelling visitor visas between the countries.
The crisis escalated with the U.S. Embassy’s move to suspend all non-immigrant visa services at diplomatic facilities in Turkey following the arrest of Metin Topuz, an employee of the U.S. Consulate General in İstanbul, last week.
Turkish daily Cumhuriyet reported the career and links of Topuz.
FROM A CONSULATE WORKER TO A 'DEA' LIAISON OFFICER
Metin Topuz began working as a worker in the year of 1982 for the U.S. Consulate General in Turkey’s İstanbul city. Having worked for the consulate until 1993, Topuz was assigned in the same year as the liaison officer to coordinate the communication between Turkish narcotic branch office and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), working in this field between 1993 and 2002.
Even a special room was assigned to Topuz within İstanbul’s main police headquarters. He cooperated with a man, Ali Arabian, for about 10 years to provide the connection between the Turkish narcotic branch and the U.S. DEA.
He also worked for the installation of recording devices for İstanbul’s narcotic bureau. Despite the system was installed by the Consulate employees for narcotic operations, it also allowed for recording everyone else. The U.S. personnel donated an X-ray device to the building as well.
LINKS TO GÜLENİST POLICE DIRECTORS AND PROSECUTORS
Topuz could make a considerably big circle of friends among the Turkish police force and judicial institutions. The U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gülen’s network (in Turkey, referred to as 'FETÖ', the Fethullahist Terror Organization) had a strong influence in the police department and prosecution offices between the years of 2002 and 2015, which is why many Gülenist cadres had contact with Metin Topuz for visas and foreign mission assignments.
The Turkish investigation file’s accusation towards Metin Topuz sets forth that he contacted the police directors and prosecutors under a search warrant for links to the Gülenist network, helping them to flee from Turkey following the aborted coup attempt in July 2016. Some important Gülenist personalities are included in the contact list of Metin Topuz: still-fugitive former deputy police director Mutlu Ekizoğlu, former police director Nazmi Ardıç, who led the match-fixing case of Turkish football club Fenerbahçe, former police director Yakup Saygılı, who coordinated the operations of Turkey’s 17-25 December 2013 corruption scandal, a criminal investigation involving key people in the Turkish government and President Erdoğan’s family, and former Gülenist prosecutor who projected many critical cases in the country.
Metin Topuz and his co-operator Ali Arabian also organized the free of charge foreign trips of police directors and prosecutors for some football games abroad.
Turkish citizen Metin Topuz did not hold any immunity; he had contacts not only with Gülenist police officers but also with entire police directorate and judicial institutions. Topuz also worked with Michael Spasaro, the U.S. DEA Chief in Turkey for many operations across Turkey.
