Türkiye did excellent job in prisoner swap with Russia: US envoy

U.S. Ambassador to Türkiye Jeff Flake has reiterated Washington's gratitude, commending Türkiye and its intelligence agency (MİT) for their outstanding role in the highly complex prisoner swap between Russia and the United States.

"I am not sure if any other country could have pulled it off like Türkiye did. We are very appreciative of that," Flake told a group of reporters in Ankara yesterday.

Flake, a former member of the U.S. Congress from Arizona, came together with the reporters to bid farewell as he is preparing to leave Türkiye after three years in office.

One of the recent developments before the ambassador's mandate ends in Türkiye was MİT's facilitation of a comprehensive prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia. It was regarded as the largest swap between the two rivals since the Cold War era.

"A huge thank you from the U.S. for Türkiye's role in the large prisoner swap that happened just a few weeks ago. President [Joe] Biden called President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan and thanked him directly. This was the most complicated process, involving seven countries and seven planes, converging in Ankara. It was significant. Türkiye was extremely helpful," the envoy said.

On a question of why Türkiye was chosen as the location for the prisoner swap, Flake recalled: "When basketball player Brittney Griner was released, there was a swap that happened here as well."

Türkiye has used its good offices for swaps between Russia and Ukraine, the ambassador reminded, saying, "As I said, this was a very complex swap, and Türkiye has a very professional bureaucracy and intelligence services. MİT did an excellent job with this. Just keeping this under wraps is a tough thing when you are dealing with so many entities. I am not sure if...