Page 8 - ARUBA TODAY

A8 WORLD NEWS
Friday 16 February 2018
Tense times in US-Turkey relations as officials huddle

By MATTHEW LEE meeting.
LOLITA C. BALDOR Tillerson, finishing a five-na-
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — tion Middle East trip, said
The specter of a U.S.-Turkish earlier in the day in Leba-
clash in Syria loomed over non that U.S. and Turkey
Thursday's meeting be- share common goals in
tween the top American Syria.
diplomat and Turkey's lead- "There's no gap between
er as the two NATO allies them," he told reporters in
scrambled to ease some of Beirut. "We have some dif-
their worst tensions in years. ferences about tactically
Turkey's president, Recep how to achieve that end-
Tayyip Erdogan, is fuming point objective, but our
over U.S. assistance to Kurd- objectives are to defeat
ish fighters near his coun- ISIS, to defeat terrorism, to
try's border. The talks with reduce the violence, pro-
U.S. Secretary of State Rex tect people and support a
Tillerson were to focus on peaceful resolution to the
Washington's plan to con- conflict in Syria."
tinue providing the Kurd- In Brussels, U.S. Defense
ish militants assistance and Secretary Jim Mattis said
Turkey's military operations the United States and Tur-
in Kurdish areas of northern key are in open dialogue
Syria. about their differences. Tur-
The discussions were ex- key's defense minister was
pected to cover several among those he met at
proposals for improving co- Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson shake NATO.
hands before their talks at the presidential palace in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Til-
operation along the border lerson started a two-day trip to Turkey amid growing tensions between the two NATO allies. "I believe we are finding
area. It's been a flashpoint (Pool Photo via AP) common ground and there
over the years for Turkish- are areas of uncommon
Kurdish tensions, al-Qaida Foreign Minister Melvut Ca- cluding in Syria and Iraq, When Tillerson returned to ground where sometimes
and Islamic State fighters vusoglu, serving as transla- the fight against terrorism his hotel, he was asked by war just gives you bad al-
traveling back and forth, tor, also was included in and bilateral relations. "Tur- reporters whether he could ternatives to choose from,"
and incidents involving ma- the meeting, which lasted key's expectations and pri- provide some detail. "Not Mattis said.
jor powers including Russia. more than three hours. orities on these issues were tonight, we're still working," Turkey is livid over Ameri-
Reflecting the sensitivity of Erdogan's office said the clearly communicated," he said. Tillerson and Cavu- ca’s military support for the
the talks between Tillerson discussions touched on re- according to a brief state- soglu planned a news con- Kurdish-led Syrian Demo-
and Erdogan, only Turkish gional developments, in- ment. ference Friday after their cratic Forces. q

Greek ex-PM files complaint vs current leader

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A said it is cooperating with unprecedented vulgar po-
Greek former prime min- Greek authorities. litical-judicial plot that was
ister accused of involve- That request, which tar- created and executed
ment in a pharmaceuti- geted several top opposi- against me." In response
cal bribery scandal filed a tion figures, came amid an to the lawsuit, Papaggelo-
criminal complaint Thurs- increasingly acrimonious poulos accused Samaras
day against current Prime face-off between the gov- of trying to create a diver-
Minister Alexis Tsipras and ernment and leading op- sion and intimidate court
six other people, including position parties, which ac- officials and witnesses.
the deputy justice minister cuse it of using the judiciary "I thank Mr. Samaras for the
and three prosecutors. to further political ends. supernatural abilities he
Antonis Samaras, the con- Samaras' criminal lawsuit attributes to me, which al-
servative prime minister was filed against Tsipras, low me in an international
from 2012-15, filed the suit Deputy Justice Minister scandal to provoke and
alleging a series of crimes, Dimitris Papaggelopoulos, manipulate investigations
including abuse of power, three prosecutors and two on a global level," Papag-
defamation, violation of secret witnesses who have gelopoulos said in a state-
duty and perjury. been identified in court ment issued by his ministry.
His move comes after documents only by code Tsipras' office also issued a
Greece's left-led govern- names. statement responding to
ment requested parlia- He accuses the prosecu- the lawsuit. "We look for-
ment investigate accusa- tors of abuse of power, ward to reading the new
tions that 10 senior former violation of duty and viola- conspiratorial theory of Mr.
officials, including Sama- tion of confidentiality, the Samaras, who is perma-
ras, were involved in bribes two witnesses of perjury nently under a persecution
allegedly paid by Swiss and defamation, and Tsip- complex," the prime minis-
drug-maker Novartis to ras and Papaggelopoulos ter's office said. "However
boost drug sales and pric- of instigating the others to the only one who is perse-
es. Samaras and the other commit those crimes. cuting him is his past. We
officials have all denied the Samaras asks the court for recommend he sues that,
allegations. Novartis has "judicial protection from an too." q