ANKARA, KOMPAS.TV – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked his foreign minister to expel ambassadors from 10 countries including Germany and the United States who had asked for the release of a jailed civil society activist.
“I have instructed our foreign minister to declare these 10 ambassadors as persona non grata as soon as possible,” he said, referring to a term used in diplomacy to signify the first step before expulsion.
Erdogan in the statement did not say an exact date for the expulsion.
“They should know and understand Turkey,” Erdogan said, accusing the ambassadors of acting “inappropriately”.
“They have to leave here the day they no longer know Turkey,” he said of the 10 ambassadors.
The ambassadors of the 10 countries earlier on Monday issued a highly unusual joint statement, saying the continued detention of Paris-born philanthropist and activist Osman Kavala casts Turkey into doubt.
The ambassadors of the United States, Germany, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden in their letter called for a “fair and speedy resolution of the (Kavala) case”.
Kavala has been imprisoned without sentence since 2017, and faces a series of successive charges related to the 2013 anti-government protests and the failed military coup in 2016.
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Kavala has become a symbol of Erdogan’s crackdown after surviving the coup attempt.
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