*ANKARA – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said the United Stateswas seeking to stab Turkey “in the back” over a diplomatic row sparked bythe detention of an American pastor that has sent the lira into a tailspin.*
“You act on one side as a strategic partner but on the other you firebullets into the foot of your strategic partner,” Erdogan told a conferencein the capital Ankara.
“We are together in NATO and then you seek to stab your strategic partnerin the back. Can such a thing be accepted?” Erdogan asked.
Turkey and the United States, two NATO allies, have been locked in bitterdisputes over a string of issues from a pastor’s detention on terrorcharges to the war in Syria.
The dispute has severely hit the Turkish currency which has been in thefree fall since Friday.
Erdogan said Turkey was facing an “economic siege”, slamming the currencymovements as an “attack against our country.”
US President Donald Trump said Friday he had doubled steel and aluminiumtariffs on Turkey.
But Erdogan advised Turks not to worry.