ISTANBUL, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said the U.S. charges levelled against a former Turkish economy minister and three other Turks for conspiring to violate Iran sanctions is a "political" step against the Turkish Republic.
Denouncing the announcement by U.S. federal prosecutors as "purely political," the Turkish leader called for a review of the decision.
"There are very peculiar smells coming from this issue," Erdogan told reporters before leaving Istanbul for Kazakhstan.
Federal prosecutors in New York announced on Wednesday that they had charged Turkey's former economy minister Zafer Caglayan, former general manager of Halkbank Suleyman Aslan and two other Turkish individuals with "conspiring to use the U.S. financial system to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of transactions on behalf of the government of Iran and other Iranian entities, which were barred by United States sanctions."
Erdogan said he had told Washington that Turkey would not be part of the U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Ties between Turkey and the U.S., two NATO allies, have been strained in particular over Washington's refusal to hand over a Turkish cleric accused of masterminding a coup attempt in Turkey in July last year and its continued support for Kurdish militia in Syria, which Ankara regards as terrorists.
