The New York Police have arrested this Friday a man accused of attacking the Turkish House with an iron crowbar, a building in the US city where Turkey locates its Consulate, as well as its diplomatic representation before the United Nations.
The 29-year-old man, identified as Recep Akbiyik, has been charged with seven charges including robbery, terrorist threat or possession of a weapon, and was identified by police on Wednesday, although his arrest has not been made as of today. Friday.
According to the preliminary investigation, during the early hours of Monday, a man dressed in black broke the exterior windows of the ground floor of the building with an iron crowbar, breaking them one by one, as reported by the Anatolia news agency.
The episode aroused criticism from the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, who on his official Twitter profile called on the US authorities to identify the perpetrator as soon as possible.
For his part, the spokesman for the United States Department of State, Matthew Miller, condemned the act of “vandalism” at a press conference, assuring that “violence against diplomatic missions is a crime that carries prison sentences.”
The incident occurs in view of the second round of the presidential elections in Turkey. However, the Turkish consul general in New York, Reyhan Ozgur, assured that the event will not alter the voting process for those Turks residing in New York.