Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has backed down from a decision made just a few days ago to expel 10 Western ambassadors for their support of an opposition leader. The Ottoman satrap announced his intention to expel from the country the representatives of countries such as the United States, Germany, France or Canada, no less. But, after the initial impulse, Erdogan has thought better of it and changed his mind, claiming that these ambassadors “backed down and will be more prudent in the future.”
Erdogan has gone so far as to assure that by taking the decision to expel these ten diplomats, “our intention was not to provoke a crisis.” The lira, which had fallen alarmingly after this decision, has recovered slightly after this reversal.
This crisis was unleashed last week when these ten diplomats – a group that also includes the ambassadors of Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark and New Zealand – called for a “just and speedy solution to the Osman Kavala case”, a businessman who happens to be one of the great antagonists of Erdogan and who is accused of trying to destabilize Turkey.
Kavala is accused of espionage and of trying to overthrow the Erdogan government using the massive protests of 2013 in Istanbul, for which he could be imprisoned in the worst case to life imprisonment. In December 2019, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in his favor, noting that he had been the victim of “arbitrary detention” since 2017.
“Taking note of the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights on the matter, we ask Turkey to ensure his urgent release,” read the joint statement that was published on the Twitter account of the US Embassy on Monday.
In response, the country’s vice president, Fuat Oktay, denounced that the ambassadors, “despite being obliged to respect the independence of the countries in which they serve, have exceeded their limits and have demanded that (politicians) interfere with power judicial”.
In addition, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported the summons of the ten diplomats to express the protest of the Turkish Government against this “unacceptable” statement. “They are trying to politicize the legal processes and put pressure on the Turkish judicial system,” he said.
This outbreak of crisis has been deactivated this Monday when the Turkish regime has backed down on its own decision, but also after the United States asked for a clarification on the motivation for that decision. “We are aware of this information and we want the Turkish Foreign Ministry to clarify the situation,” commented a senior US official.
