Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he instructed the foreign minister to declare 10 ambassadors, including Washington’s envoy, ‘persona non grata’ over a rare joint statement urging release of a jailed opposition figure.
The move was announced by Turkey’s president during a public speech on Saturday.
“I gave the necessary instructions to our foreign minister, I said that you will handle the denunciation of the 10 ambassadors as soon as possible,” Erdogan said.
The furious reaction was prompted by a joint statement, released by the 10 envoys earlier this week. The ambassadors urged a speedy and just resolution to the case of Osman Kavala – a Turkish businessman and philanthropist held in jail without conviction since late 2017. Kavala faces a large number of charges, including alleged financing of anti-Erdogan protests and participating in the botched 2016 coup.
On Tuesday, the envoys of Germany, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the US were summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry over their “irresponsible” statement and “politicizing [of]the Kavala case.”
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