Article Scan: Turkish PM’s visit could boost dialogue with US (Murat Yetkin)

Fresh indications suggest that Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım’s meeting with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Nov. 8 could boost dialogue between the two countries.

The latest indication of this was a report late on Nov. 6 about an easing of visa restrictions in U.S. consulates in Turkey for Turkish citizens, one day before Yıldırım’s departure for Washington. As soon as the story was reported by Reuters the steady fall of the Turkish Lira against the U.S. dollar for the last few weeks halted. The recovery was only slight, but it reflected hope that tension between the two countries could soften a little.

The visa restrictions were imposed by the U.S. administration following the arrest of a Turkish employee of the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul, Metin Topuz. Topuz was arrested on suspicion of being linked to the illegal network of Fethullah Gülen, a Pennsylvania-based Islamist preacher accused of masterminding Turkey’s July 2016 military coup attempt…. CLICK FOR FURTHER READING

Murat YETKİN  is a veteran journalist expert on foreign relation issues and enjoys much respect in the world of media. In above article on hurriyetdailynews.com he writes about USA-Turkey relations deteriorated for a while (and expected to recover soon). Mr. Yetkin refers to most recent developments about the visa challenge between two countries.