[ Reuters ] Turkey to expel U.S. envoy and nine others, Erdogan says
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that he had told his foreign ministry to expel the ambassadors of the United States and nine other Western countries for demanding the release of philanthropist Osman Kavala.
Seven of the ambassadors represent Turkey’s NATO allies and the expulsions, if carried out, would open the deepest rift with the West in Erdogan’s 19 years in power.
In a joint statement on Oct. 18, the ambassadors of Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand and the United States called for a just and speedy resolution to Kavala’s case, and for his “urgent release”. They were summoned by the foreign ministry, which called the statement irresponsible.
“I gave the necessary order to our foreign minister and said what must be done: These 10 ambassadors must be declared persona non grata (undesirable) at once. You will sort it out immediately,” Erdogan said in a speech in the northwestern city of Eskisehir.
“They will know and understand Turkey. The day they do not know and understand Turkey, they will leave,” he said to cheers from the crowd.
“No instructions have been given to embassies,” the source said, adding that it was possible a decision may be taken at Turkey’s cabinet meeting on Monday.
Six of the countries involved are EU members, including Germany and France. European Parliament President David Sassoli tweeted: “The expulsion of ten ambassadors is a sign of the authoritarian drift of the Turkish government. We will not be intimidated. Freedom for Osman Kavala.”
DPA Notes: Erdogan is betting on the “weakness” of EU and the western countries as a whole, as they are known to be mostly full of talk but no tangible actions/reactions.
However this might be too big of a gamble, given how the western countries seemed to be getting more assertive and reactive against China of late… Erdogan/Turkey might be making a wrong bet that the European Union is going to let this one go.
