Erdogan orders 10 envoys ousted, including from US
ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that he had ordered 10 foreign ambassadors who called for the release of a jailed philanthropist to be declared persona non grata.
The envoys, including the U.S., French and German representatives in Ankara, issued a statement last week calling for a resolution to the case of Osman Kavala, a businessman and philanthropist held in prison since 2017 despite not having been convicted of a crime.
Describing the statement as an “impudence,” Erdogan said he had ordered the ambassadors be declared undesirable.
“I gave the instruction to our foreign minister and said, ‘You will immediately handle the persona non grata declaration of these 10 ambassadors,’ ” Erdogan said during a rally in the western city of Eskisehir.
He added: “They will recognize, understand and know Turkey. The day they don’t know or understand Turkey, they will leave.”
A declaration of persona non grata against a diplomat usually means that individual is banned from remaining in their host country. However, the ambassadors were not immediately given a deadline for leaving, and it remained unclear whether they would actually be expelled.
The outburst seemed to indicate a return to frosty relations with the West, after a brief thaw that analysts have attributed to Erdogan’s concern for his country’s stumbling economy.
The diplomats, who also include the ambassadors of the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and New Zealand, were summoned to the foreign ministry on Tuesday.
The envoys had urged the Turkish government to abide by a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights and release the philanthropist, Osman Kavala, who has been held since 2017 despite not having been convicted of a crime.
The Biden administration was the driving force behind the letter, in keeping with his policy of publicly calling out states over human rights violations.
In recent years, Erdogan has frequently been at odds with western nations, putatively his allies in NATO. Most prominently, he has feuded with Washington over its support for a Kurdish group in Syria that he considers a terrorist organization.
He has also clashed with the United States over his rapprochement with Russia, a change that saw Turkey purchase a Russian advanced air-defense system.
But he had softened his stance toward the West lately in an effort to rescue Turkey’s failing economy. By threatening the expulsion of the diplomats, Erdogan appeared to be giving up on that gambit and breaking relations in a way that would allow him to blame the West for the economic crisis, said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish research program at the Washington Institute.
“He is realizing he won’t be able to turn the economy around so he will blame the West,” Cagaptay said. “It is a recognition that the economy is beyond repair.”
Kavala was acquitted of charges of financing and organizing widespread anti-government demonstrations in 2013, known as the Taksim Square protests. But the acquittal was immediately replaced with new charges of sponsoring a 2016 coup attempt.
Human rights organizations have dismissed the charges he is facing as baseless and have urged the committee of ministers who oversee the European Court of Human Rights to begin infringement proceedings against Turkey, a rare action that could lead to its suspension from the court.
The ambassadors released the letter Tuesday, on the fourth anniversary of Kavala’s detention.