Asylum-seeking Turkish general joins NATO meeting

ANKARA

Gen. Mustafa Zeki Uğurlu, a high-ranking Turkish military officer on a U.S.-based assignment for NATO, was also seeking asylum in the United States after being recalled by the government. The state-run Anadolu Agency said the general left his post in Norfolk on July 22, one week after the coup attempt. However, a photo on the official NATO website showed him attending an international meeting in his uniform on July 27.  

One official told Reuters that the Foreign Ministry had sent instructions to Turkish diplomatic missions around the world where those suspected of links to the plotters were thought to be working, ordering them back to Ankara as part of the investigations. 

Çavuşoğlu had previously said around 300 members of the Foreign Ministry have been suspended since the coup plot, including two ambassadors. He said on Aug. 11 that two officials in Bangladesh fled to New York and another official had fled to Japan through Moscow. 

“We will return these traitors to Turkey,” Çavuşoğlu said. 

Additionally, more than 200 members of the military, including nine generals, wanted in connection with the failed coup were still at large, according to officials.