Awwal 14, 1432 H/Feb 17, 2011, SPA -- Turkish officials have warned the new U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone against interfering in Turks' domestic affairs after he commented on Turkey detaining reporters despite pledging support for press freedom, Reuters reported. Prominent journalist Soner Yalcin and three colleagues were detained this week and were due to appear in court on Thursday in connection with an alleged plot to overthrow the government. "On the one hand there exists a stated policy of support for a free press. On the other hand, journalists are put under detention," Ricciardone told reporters on Tuesday. "We are trying to make sense of this." Commenting on the case of Yalcin, owner of a website that is critical of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government, Ricciardone, who was appointed in December, said he did not know what the charges were and that it was a domestic matter for Turkey. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was among several ministers who took the envoy to task over his remarks on press freedom. "We do not find it right for an ambassador to make judgments over an ongoing investigation," Davutoglu was quoted as saying by state-run Anatolian news agency while on a visit to Nepal. "This is not an issue of press freedom. There are other issues involved." Davutoglu said that Ricciardone had met a Turkish foreign ministry official and explained that his comments to journalists were made in "informal circumstances". Ricciardone, who was appointed in December, sought to pour balm over the controversy on Thursday at a business luncheon in Istanbul. He said that, as a partner of Turkey, the United States was interested in seeing its democracy flourish, rule of law strengthened, the protection of freedom of expression, the rights of people to make business and freely practise religion. "We will respectfully listen to your debates to learn and I hope not to participate in them," he said. "But I should tell you that the United States will always be on the side of freedom and rule of law." NATO ally Turkey has pushed through a series of political reforms with the aim of securing EU membership, but rights groups remain critical of its record on freedom of expression. Turkish courts are hearing a series of cases on alleged coup plots and journalists are among those detained. The latest trial of nearly 200 serving and military officers in the alleged "Sledgehammer" plot reflects a lingering mistrust between the traditionally secular establishment and a ruling party that critics say retains Islamist leanings. U.S. diplomats have come under fire before. Erdogan has accused Ricciardone's predecessors of slander following several cables leaked by the WikiLeaks website. U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley defended the ambassador's remarks on Wednesday. "We do have broad concerns about trends involving intimidation of journalists in Turkey, and we have raised that directly with the Turkish government and we'll continue to do so," he said in Washington. Though Muslim Turkey is a U.S. ally, surveys show Turks mistrust the United States, and there is a widespread perception that U.S. agents played a role in the 1980 military coup. -- SPA
