Trump, Erdoğan to meet next week, discuss case of ex-Turkish minister

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Donald Trump will meet on Sept. 21 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York and discuss the case of a former Turkish minister, according to Erdoğan. 

Erdoğan said on Sept. 15 that he would discuss with Trump next week the case of former Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan indicted in the United States for conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Çağlayan and former Halkbank general manager Süleyman Aslan were charged on Sept. 13 with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran by illegally moving hundreds of millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on Tehran's behalf. Çağlayan was also charged with taking bribes in cash and jewelry worth tens of millions of dollars.

"There are truly some problematic issues regarding this period, and the wrongful steps taken by those under President Trump are evidently casting a shadow on Trump's administration. I don't think this should be allowed," Erdoğan said in an interview with private broadcaster A Haber.

Last week Erdoğan said he had told Washington that Turkey had never agreed to comply with its sanctions on Iran, and called on the United States to review the indictment. He also said Trump had called him and vowed to follow the case more closely.

The U.S. indictment in question broadened a case targeting Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, who is still in prison in the U.S.

Zarrab was the prime suspect in a corruption and bribery probe involving former Turkish officials that went public late in December, 2013. He was accused of being the ringleader of a money laundering and gold smuggling ring in Turkey that circumvented the U.S. sanctions on Iran. 

The charges...