The United States has suspended the processing of the vast majority of new visas in Turkey after Turkish authorities arrested a US embassy employee last week, escalating a brewing diplomatic crisis between the two allies and, in effect, blocking thousands of Turks from travel to the US.
The news sent the Turkish lira down as much as 6.6 per cent against the dollar in thin overnight trading to an intraday low of 3.8533 per dollar, its softest level since January 30.
The embassy employee is the second to be arrested in the last year, in addition to at least a dozen US citizens held under yet unproven allegations of allegiance to Fethullah Gulen, a self-exiled Islamic preacher living in Pennsylvania whose extradition Turkey has sought to little avail.