Police in the United States have detained a man accused of attacking Turkey’s diplomatic headquarters in New York with a crowbar and breaking its windows, law enforcement authorities said.

The Friday arrest was met with criticism from US and Turkish authorities. The offender was described as a “terrorist” by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who earlier this week urged US authorities to find him.
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Recep Akbiyik, 29, was named as the suspect by the New York Police Department in an email to Al Jazeera. According to a police spokeswoman, he is accused of numerous offenses, including threatening, criminal mischief, making terroristic threats, criminal possession of a weapon, and attempted burglary.

Akbiyik is a Turkish citizen who reportedly fled Turkey a year ago, according to Turkish media. His intentions are still unknown.

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A man wearing a helmet and wearing a black suit was seen in video released by the state-run Anadolu Agency of Turkey breaking the building’s glass early on Monday.

The building, a skyscraper in Manhattan not far from the UN building, is called the Turkish House. Both the Turkish mission to the UN and the Turkish consulate are located there.
The assault happened almost a week before Erdogan and the opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu faced battle in Turkey’s presidential run-off.

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This week, Turkish emigrants in New York cast ballots at the Turkish House. On Sunday, there will be voting in Turkey. Erdogan came out on top in the first round of voting earlier this month, but he was unable to secure the necessary majority to claim an outright victory.

Although the US and Turkey are NATO allies, tensions between the two nations in recent years have been caused by Washington’s support for Kurdish militants in Syria.

Turkey assisted in negotiating a contract to keep exporting Ukrainian grains during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and US officials have frequently emphasized the value of their friendship with Turkey.