​General Flynn and Muhammed bin Salman

TURKEY - In Brief 05 Dec 2018 by Atilla Yesilada

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I’ve been tardy in contributing to GSP Turkey research output, even though I am itching to write a Big Picture essay. My writer’s block is caused by the lengthy road trip of the towering figure in Turkish politics, President Erdogan. There is still very little background on his critical summit with Trump in Buenos Aires, while finalizing the alliance with MHP and the announcement of some mayoral candidates have been postponed pending his meeting with MHP leader Mr. Devlet Bahceli.I plan to cover all of these developments in a few days, as rumors give way to facts. In the meantime, I felt the need to write a market brief on Special Prosecutor Mueller’s court filing for General Flynn, which makes reference to his ties to Turkey and the warrants issued by a DA of Istanbul for Maj. Gen. Ahmad al-Assiri and Saud el-Qahtani, who are both described “as close aides of Prince Mohammed bin Salman” by NYT. Mueller’s filing could complicate the relation between Turkey and US Congress NBC News covered the pertinent segment of the filing as follows: “The documents specifically state that a key component of Flynn’s work for Turkey involved the government’s efforts to remove from the U.S. a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses the cleric, Fethullah Gulen, of orchestrating a failed coup against him in July 2016. Flynn began working for Turkey about a month later. Federal prosecutors said in the court filing, which refers to Gulen, though not by name, that Flynn’s decision not to disclose that he was aiding the Turkish government "impeded the ability of the public to learn about the Republic of Turkey's efforts to influence public opinion...