Ambassador's Remarks and Public Events

Ambassador Wilson’s Remarks after the Attack on the Consulate General in Istanbul

Ankara, Turkey
Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Ambassador Wilson:  Good afternoon. 

First, I want to express my condolences and those of the US government to the families of three Turkish police personnel who were killed in the attack that took place earlier today on our Consulate General in Istanbul.  I understand there may be an additional two Turkish police who are wounded, and they and their families and all of their loved ones are very much in our thoughts and prayers.

The facts are that at approximately 11am, assailants opened fire on the Turkish police post at the main entrance of the consulate.  I understand that as many as three assailants may have been killed as well.

The police responded effectively and quickly.  We are deeply grateful for the work that they do to protect our official US government establishments here.  We are of course cooperating closely with them now.

I spoke with Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Apakan very shortly after the attack earlier today, he conveyed the government’s condolences and commitment to protect our embassy, our consulates, and our official establishments here and their personnel, for which I’m very grateful.  And I expressed on behalf of U.S. our sadness at Turkey’s loss of life.

I also spoke a short while ago with our Consul General in Istanbul, Sharon Wiener, and understand from her that all of our consulate staff are safe and accounted for.

It is, of course, inappropriate now to speculate on who is responsible for this or why they carried out this action.  It is an obvious act of terrorism.  Our countries will stand together to confront this, as we have confronted similar problems in the past.

I’ll be happy to answer a couple of questions.

Q:  Was there a threat, did you hear about a threat here before?

Ambassador Wilson:  No, I did not, as far as I’m aware.

Q:  Mr. Ambassador you said this was a terrorist act.  What kind of terrorist act do you think this was?

Ambassador Wilson:  Again, I’m not in a position to speculate on what, who this is, or why they’ve carried out this action.  An attack on police outside of a diplomatic establishment, more or less by definition is an act of terrorism in my opinion.

Q:  Mr. Ambassador, in recent days there’s this Ergenekon case going on in Turkey.  And there are repercussions from it.  So in such a time, what do you think of this attack?  Can they, both incidents be related?

Ambassador Wilson:  I expect and I assume that these are unrelated events.  In any case, we have no information that will connect them in any way. 

Q:  Do you think this attack is against the US Government or Turkey as well?

Ambassador Wilson:  Well, as I said earlier our countries stand together in the fight against international terrorism.  This was an attack on an American diplomatic establishment here.  Those who have lost their lives are Turkish citizens and we’re very sad about that. 

Q:  Istanbul police says that there are some Islamic aspects to this attack, what do you think?

Ambassador Wilson:  Again, I don’t want to speculate on who these assailants were or what their motives are.  It’s enough to say that they’re terrorists that carried out a dastardly and cowardly act against our consulate and against Turkish police.  Our personnel are in touch with the Turkish police now as they and we try to investigate this and get a better understanding of who these people are and what they were doing. 

Q:  After the attack, did you ask for extra security measures from the Turkish police?

Ambassador Wilson:  Yes, we have asked for additional security presence in Istanbul of course as well as here and our consulate in Adana and I understand clearly you can see outside our Embassy there is additional security present and I understand it’s also been provided in Istanbul and Adana.

And I will repeat that we’re very grateful to the authorities of this country for the work they do to protect our establishment as well as all other foreign diplomatic establishments that are here. 

Q:  After this attack, do you think US policies towards Turkey will change?  If so, how?

Ambassador Wilson:  The U.S. will remain a close friend and ally of Turkey and we will not be deterred in any way by terrorists who seek to strike at us or strike at U.S.-Turkish relations.

Q:  Do you think this attack can related to Ergenekon case?

Ambassador Wilson:  Again, I would not connect these events in any way.  We certainly have no information that would connect them in any way. 

Q:  You said Turkish and U.S. officials are working together in this investigation.  Will there be any American team coming over to Turkey to investigate this?

Ambassador Wilson:  Well, when I referred to our people working together, our security personnel in Istanbul and also our security personnel here are in touch with the Turkish National Police, who, of course, has the primary responsibility to investigate this.

We will be sharing with them all of the information that we have and I assume that the Turkish authorities will do likewise and we will do everything we can to assist the investigation.

Thank you very much.