BANGKOK — Turkish officials have refuted claims from Thai police that the two nations were cooperating in the investigation of last month’s bomb attack in Bangkok.
Turkey’s embassy in Bangkok yesterday denied that Thai police have reached out about a key suspect who reportedly fled to Turkey, saying it has neither been contacted nor received reply to its own inquiries.
“Up to now this Embassy has not been contacted by Thai authorities in this respect, and we do not have information concerning the investigation,” read yesterday’s statement from the embassy.
A spokesman from Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also quoted saying Thailand has ignored requests for information regarding suspects who reportedly fled to Turkey or were Turkish nationals.
“We have not officially received any information about this subject from Thailand," Tanju Bilgic said in a weekly press briefing yesterday in Ankara, Turkey, according to Reuters.
Thai officials have been uncomfortable acknowledging the increasingly international links the investigation has turned up, including a roster of foreign suspects including Turkish and Chinese nationals. Officials had reportedly been instructed to avoid mention of international terrorism or specific groups possibly involved in the attack which killed 20 people, mostly foreign tourists.
It wasn’t until Tuesday that any official credence was given to the theory the attack was linked to an ethnic group in the far west of China and those sympathetic to them in Turkey.