Turkey Walks Back Threat To Expel Western Diplomats

The New York Times reports:

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey stepped back on Monday from a threat to expel 10 Western ambassadors, averting a diplomatic storm that analysts and diplomats were warning would bring economic disaster upon Turkey and a lasting rupture in the NATO alliance.

In what seemed to be a calculated move, the 10 embassies involved issued identical statements confirming their compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, statements which were then welcomed by Mr. Erdogan.

“Our will is never to cause a crisis, but to protect the rights and law, honor, interests and sovereign rights of our country. Thus, today the same ambassadors with a new statement turned back from their defamation of our judiciary and of our country,” he said, adding: “I believe from now on they will be more careful about their statements regarding sovereign rights.”

Read the full article.

Turkey’s president stepped back on Monday from a threat to expel 10 Western ambassadors, averting a diplomatic storm that analysts were warning would bring economic disaster upon Turkey and a lasting rupture in the NATO alliance. https://t.co/X87RxI6GsU

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 25, 2021