Preet Bharara

Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office has opened a probe into New York’s Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney in-charge of the jailed Iranian-Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab’s case, and Joon H. Kim, Acting U.S. Attorney, on Nov. 18 over evidence used in trial of its citizens.

President Donald Trump sought Tuesday to repair relations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is alarmed about a U.S. plan to arm Kurdish fighters in Syria.

In 2010, Bernard Lewis predicted that Iran and Turkey would trade places by the end of the decade. Iranians would abandon political Islam for secular nationalism, the great Princeton Orientalist said, even as the Turks relinquish their secular, Western-looking republic for some form of Islamist rule.

A Turkish banker, sanctions and Iran − the plot thickens as the NYPD arrests an executive suspected of helping transfer funds to Iran when sanctions were firmly in place.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who was fired on March 11, is in league with the followers of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen against Turkey, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has said, adding that his firing was "totally the decision of the U.S. government."

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions abruptly asked the remaining 46 chief federal prosecutors left over from the Obama administration to resign on March 10, including Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who had been asked to stay on in November 2016 by then President-elect Donald Trump and is the chief prosecutor in the case of an arrested Turkish-Iranian businessman.

A jury trial against Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab that was scheduled to begin on Jan. 23, 2017, has been suspended until Oct. 16 after the judge in the fraud case ruled that the defendant's legal team required extra time to prepare for an additional indictment regarding Zarrab's alleged ties to Hezbollah.

Deutsche Bank and Bank of America were swindled by Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, the office of Manhattan Attorney Preet Bharara, who is the lead prosecutor against the controversial figure, has alleged.

A top Turkish government official recently met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch and told her the prosecution of Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab was "based on no evidence," according to a court filing unsealed on Nov. 15. 

A recusation demand submitted by arrested Iranian-Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab's lawyers against his case's judge has been rejected for "lacking merit," despite the defense's attempts to validate the demand by quoting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.