President Erdogan orders US Ambassador and 9 other countries to expel from Turkey, what’s up?

Wow cool – President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he would “expel” the ambassador from the United States and nine other Western countries. The move came after the 10 countries demanded the release of civil society leader Osman Kavala from prison.

“I have instructed our Minister of Foreign Affairs to declare these 10 ambassadors as persona non grata as soon as possible, “Erdogan said on Saturday.

For your information, persona non grata is a term used in diplomacy to mean the first step before deportation. However, Erdogan has still not set a specific date for the expulsion of the 10 ambassadors.

Earlier this week, the 10 ambassadors issued a joint statement calling for a resolution of the Kavala affair. Kavala is a philanthropist imprisoned since the end of 2017 although he has never been convicted of a crime.

Erdoan later described the statement as a form of “insolence”. American, German, Canadian, Danish, Finnish, French, Dutch, New Zealand, Norwegian and Swedish diplomats were summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.

“They will recognize, understand and know Turkey. The day they do not know or understand Turkey, they will leave,” Erdogan continued.

Last year, Kavala was acquitted of charges relating to national anti-government protests in 2013. But the verdict was later overturned and merged with charges relating to the 2016 coup attempt.

International observers and human rights groups have repeatedly called for the release of Kavala and Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas, imprisoned since 2016. They claim that the imprisonment of Kavala and Demirtas is based on political considerations . But Ankara denies the claims and insists on the independence of Turkish courts.

The European Court of Human Rights also called for Kavala’s release in 2019 and said his detention was aimed at silence and was not supported by evidence of abuse. The European Council has said it will relaunch Turkey’s violation process at the end of November if Kavala is not released.

(week / Bert)