Turkey to banish 10 Western ambassadors, Erdogan says

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, October 20, 2021. REUTERS / Afolabi Sotunde

• Kavala has been in prison since the end of 2017
• He denies the allegation of involvement in failed coup attempts and mass protests
• Human rights groups say case symbolic of raid in Turkey

ISTANBUL, October 23 (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that he had ordered the Foreign Ministry to declare ten ambassadors from Western countries “persona non grata” for demanding the release of philanthropist Osman Kavala.

Kavala has been in prison for four years and is charged with funding nationwide protests in 2013 and participating in a failed coup in 2016. He denies the allegations.

In a joint statement on October 18, the ambassadors of Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand and the United States called for a fair and swift solution to the Kavala case and its “urgent clearance”. They were summoned by the State Department, which said the statement was irresponsible.

“I gave our foreign minister the necessary order and said what to do: These 10 ambassadors must be declared persona non grata immediately. They will clarify this immediately,” said Erdogan in a speech in the city of Eskisehir in northwestern Turkey.

“They will know and understand Turkey. The day they do not know and understand Turkey, they will leave,” he said to the cheers of the crowd.

The US, German and French embassies and the White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kavala was acquitted of charges related to the 2013 protests last year, but the verdict was overturned this year and combined with charges in another case related to the attempted coup.

Human rights groups say his case is emblematic of crackdown on dissenting opinions under Erdogan.

Kavala said Friday it was “pointless” to attend his trial as a fair hearing was impossible given Erdogan’s recent remarks.

Erdogan was quoted on Thursday as saying that the ambassadors in question would not release “bandits, murderers and terrorists” in their own countries.

“Since there is no possibility of a fair trial in these circumstances, I believe that attending hearings and defending myself are meaningless from now on,” Kavala said in a written statement.

The European Court of Human Rights called for the immediate release of Kavala in late 2019 on the grounds that there was no reasonable suspicion that he had committed a crime and stated that his detention was intended to silence him.

A similar verdict was passed this year in the case of Selahattin Demirtas, former leader of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), who has been in prison for almost five years.

The Council of Europe, which oversees the implementation of the ECHR decisions, has announced that it will initiate infringement proceedings against Turkey if Kavala is not released.

The next hearing in the trial against Kavala and others is due on November 26th.

Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Peter Graff and Kevin Liffey

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