Press reports said last week that Tanlay was recalled to the Foreign Ministry in Ankara after diplomatic tensions developed with Belgium over recent remarks Tanlay allegedly made in regard to a ruling made by a Belgian court in a case involving members of the terrorist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C). Earlier this month, contrary to widespread expectations, an appeals court in Brussels postponed its final ruling in the retrial of seven members of the DHKP/C to October.
Tanlay was later quoted by Belgian media as saying that terrorism will strike Belgium and that only then will the people of Belgium understand what terrorism is. Turkish sources, on the other hand, said he was misquoted.
The Foreign Ministry statement, released on Tuesday, did not comment on the reported remarks of Tanlay but said reports that his return to Ankara was linked with these remarks were false. The ministry explained that Tanlay was appointed to his current position in 2005 and that his posting was nearing an end. His planned appointment as chief foreign affairs advisor to the prime minister is about to be finalized, the statement also said.
