The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (67) rages against the German ambassador!
Istanbul – Turkey has declared the ambassadors of Germany, the USA and eight other states to be undesirable persons.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Eskisehir on Saturday that he had instructed the Foreign Ministry to do so. Dutch media report that the Dutch ambassador has already been expelled. According to BILD information, the German embassy has not yet been officially informed by the Turkish side.
“I gave the order to our Foreign Minister. I said, see to it that these ten ambassadors are declared ‘persona non grata’ as soon as possible, ”said Erdogan.
In international diplomacy, classification as “persona non grata” is usually followed by expulsion!
From circles of the Foreign Office in Berlin it was said: “We have taken note of the statements made by Turkish President Erdogan and the reports on it and are currently in intensive consultation with the nine other countries concerned.” In addition to Germany and the USA, France is also affected. Canada, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden.
The US State Department sought clarification. “The reports are known to us and we are now looking for clarity from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey,” said a spokesman for the State Department on Saturday evening.
German politicians sharply condemned the Turkish approach on Saturday evening. Bundestag Vice President Claudia Roth (Greens) called for sanctions: “Erdogan’s unscrupulous actions against his critics are increasingly being disinhibited,” said Roth of the German press agency. One must face the “authoritarian course of Erdogan internationally”, impose sanctions and stop arms exports to Turkey.
The FDP foreign politician Alexander Graf Lambsdorff wrote on Twitter that a possible expulsion of ten ambassadors “would be unwise, undiplomatic and would weaken the cohesion of the alliance.” Erdogan could not be interested in that. The CDU foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen spoke to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” of an “escalation in foreign policy”. Erdogan “is leading his country further in a comprehensive turning away from Europe and the West”.
Erdogan had previously threatened the ambassadors indirectly with deportation because of a demand for the release of the cultural patron Osman Kavala. It was initially unclear whether Erdogan’s latest statements would now lead directly to the expulsion of diplomats from a total of ten countries.
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“We cannot have the luxury of welcoming you to our country,” Erdogan said on Thursday, according to the state news agency Anadolu, with a view to the diplomats.
“Are you entitled to teach Turkey such a lesson? Who are you already? ”Germany or the USA did not simply release“ crooks, murderers and terrorists ”either.
The embassies of Germany and nine other countries in Ankara published an appeal on Monday in which they, with reference to judgments by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), demanded the release of Kavala, who was arrested in 2017.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry then summoned the ambassadors concerned. Among the appointed diplomats were those from the USA, France and the Netherlands.
The ECtHR had already requested Kavala’s release in 2019. Turkey has so far ignored the judgment, although as a member of the Council of Europe it is actually obliged to implement it.
Kavala and more than 50 other defendants are accused of attempted coup in connection with the anti-government Gezi protests in Istanbul in 2013. Kavala is also accused of “political and military espionage” in connection with the attempted coup in 2016.
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