The Turkish President reproaches the ambassadors in question for having called for the release of the opponent Osman Kavala. He believes that they “must know and understand Turkey”.
A new diplomatic crisis with Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Saturday that he had ordered the expulsion, “as soon as possible”, of ten ambassadors, including those from the United States, France, Germany and all the Scandinavian countries.
These ambassadors were guilty in the eyes of Turkey of having signed a joint declaration calling on Ankara to respect its commitments and the decision taken by the European Court of Human Rights which demands the release of the opponent Osman Kavala.
The latter, imprisoned for four years without trial, has been accused since 2013 by the current regime of wanting to destabilise Turkey. A businessman and patron of the arts, he has become the government’s bête noire. In a statement issued on Monday evening, Canada, France, Finland, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United States called for a “fair and swift resolution of the case”.
“I have ordered our foreign minister to declare these ten ambassadors persona non grata as soon as possible,” President Erdogan said during a trip to central Turkey, without specifying a date by which the diplomats must leave. These diplomats “must know and understand Turkey”, he continued, accusing them of “indecency”. “From morning to night they repeat: Kavala, Kavala… But the one you are talking about, Kavala, is Soros’ agent in Turkey,” he said.
“Nothing to justify the expulsion”
Among the first countries to react on Saturday evening were Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands, as well as Germany, who said they had not received any official notification about their respective ambassadors at this stage.
“Our ambassador has not done anything that would justify the expulsion,” Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Trude Måseide was quoted by the NTB news agency as saying, adding that her country “will continue to urge Turkey to adhere to democratic standards”.
“We are currently in intensive consultations with the nine other countries concerned,” the German Foreign Ministry said.
