The Foreign Service Journal, December 2018

58 DECEMBER 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL When Doing Your Job Lands You in Jail L ocally Employed staff members sometimes suffer for their careers in ways we can’t quite fathom. Such is the case with Turkish citizen Hamza Uluçay, a 37-year employee of the U.S. con- sulate’s political section in Adana, Turkey, who has spent almost two years in jail because of his work for the U.S. government. In February 2017, Turkish authorities detained and questioned Uluçay because of his routine contacts with local Kurdish groups on behalf of the consulate. Uluçay was ultimately arrested and charged with being a member of a terrorist organization. Turkish press reports claim that the evidence against him includes 21 one-dollar bills that were found in his home, along with books about Kurdish politics and terrorism. Seven months later, in September 2017, Turkish authorities struck again, this time in Istanbul, where they arrested Metin Topuz, a 20-year veteran of the consulate whose job was to support the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s work in Turkey. Topuz was also charged with membership in a terrorist organization, along with espionage and attempting to overthrow the government. A third employee, Mete Canturk, who also works at the consulate in Istanbul, was placed under house arrest in January 2018 for alleged ties to the Gulen movement—an organization run by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania as a per- manent U.S. resident, and whom Turkish authorities want to have extradited to Turkey to face charges that he orchestrated a failed coup in Ankara in July 2016. Canturk's wife and child were also detained, but were later released. The State Department has been advocating for the release of the three men. In November 2017, then-Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Jonathan Cohen told the U.S. Hel- sinki Commission: “It appears to us that Mr. Uluçay and Mr. Topuz were arrested for maintaining legiti- mate contacts with Turkish government and local officials and others in the context of their official duties on behalf of the U.S. government.” The State Department suspended nonimmigrant visa services on Oct. 8, 2017. Full services were resumed on Dec. 28, after the Turkish government assured the embassy that no additional employees were under investigation and Turkey would give the United States advance warning of any future arrests. All three men remain in legal jeopardy, either in prison or under house arrest, as U.S. officials fight to get them freed and the U.S.-Turkish relationship continues to suffer. Pointing to the significant political capital expended by President Donald Trump to get Turkey to release American pastor Andrew Brunson, for- mer U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman and Professor Henri Barkey, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, co-authored a July 29 Washing- ton Post article reminding the world that the three Locally Employed staff were still being held “on bogus charges.” On Aug. 3, Secretary Mike Pompeo met privately with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to push for the release of Brunson and the three local employees. Pastor Brunson was released on Oct. 12; Uluçay’s request to be released was denied that same day. As of mid-October, Uluçay and Topuz remained in prison, and Canturk was under house arrest, unable to return to work. Visiting Turkey on Oct. 12, Sec. Pompeo raised the profile of these cases by visiting with their families. In a tweet marking Brunson’s release, the Secretary wrote: “We hope that the Turkish govern- ment will quickly release our other detained U.S. citizens and State Department Locally Employed staff.” —Donna Scaramastra Gorman, Associate Editor