Turkey backs down and won’t expel 10 western ambassadors

The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Monday retracted the expulsion of ten Western ambassadors, which he himself announced last Saturday, interpreting a brief prior statement from the diplomatic representations involved as an apology.

The diplomatic crisis triggered by a statement in favor of the release of the imprisoned Turkish businessman and activist is thus defused Osman Kavala, signed last Monday by the ambassadors of Germany, Denmark, France, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

“The ambassadors’ communiqué directly attacked our judiciary. It was an insult to our judges and prosecutors. We cannot accept it. My duty is to give the necessary answer. Today, the new statement by the ambassadors themselves is a step backwards. We trust that in the future they will be more careful “, said Erdogan.

The Turkish president made these statements, broadcast live on the NTV network, after leading a ministerial cabinet meeting in which it was expected that the decision to expel the diplomats would be endorsed or modified.

The brief text from the US embassy, ​​in English and Turkish, which allowed the turn of Erdogan, only points out that “in relation to the October 18 communiqué, the United States affirms that it complies with Article 41 of the Vienna Convention”, which vetoes diplomats from meddling in the internal affairs of the country in which they are posted.

The other embassies involved in the crisis either adhered to the US statement or wrote a similar message, which government media presented as “a step backwards”, and before ending the cabinet meeting, the Turkish state agency Anadolu, citing ” sources from the presidential environment ”assured that Erdogan he had “welcomed” the text.

The markets seemed to interpret these words as a sign that the crisis would defuse, because the Turkish lira, which in the morning had fallen by 2.4% in a few hours, recovered all its losses and was placed at the value of Friday, of 11.0 units per euro.

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