President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today that he has ordered the Foreign Ministry to declare 10 ambassadors, including those from the United States, Germany and France, persona non grata, in connection with their call for the release of Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala, Reuters reported.
On Monday, the embassies of ten countries circulated a statement on social media in which they called for the release of Kavala, saying that the ongoing trial and arrest cast a shadow on democracy and the rule of law in Turkey.
The ambassadors of these countries – the United States, Germany, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, Norway and New Zealand – were summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry for an explanation on Tuesday. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called their call to support Kavala “unacceptable”.
“I gave an order to our Minister of Foreign Affairs. I wanted to declare these 10 ambassadors persona non grata as soon as possible, ”Erdogan said in the western city of Eskisehir, DPA reported.
Osman Kavala was originally arrested in connection with protests against Gezi Park in 2013.
The charges against him were later expanded to include espionage and attempted overthrow of the government during a coup attempt in 2016. Kavala spent four years in prison without a sentence, although his release was ordered by the European Court of Justice.