Despite the threat of sanctions by the Council of Europe, Turkey does not want to release the imprisoned cultural promoter Osman Kavala from prison. A Council of Europe spokesman said the country stuck to this stance until a response deadline expired on Wednesday.
The Council of Europe in Strasbourg recently initiated infringement proceedings against its member country Turkey in a historically almost unique step. Ankara was asked to provide feedback on this by Wednesday at midnight.
Erdogan's threats can no longer be relied on either. Last weekend the Turkish President threatened to have ten Western ambassadors, including the German one, deported as "undesirable persons". But after several haunting phone calls between Ankara , Washington and Berlin and a reassuring tweet from the US embassy in Ankara, Erdogan relented: expulsion canceled. But is that also the end of the crisis?
In the dispute over the imprisoned Turkish human rights activist Osman Kavala, Head of State Recep Tayyip Erdogan has the German ambassador, the US ambassador and eight other ambassadors declared "undesirable persons".
Erdoğan said that he had instructed the Foreign Ministry to declare the diplomats persona non grata "as soon as possible". The ambassadors made a joint appeal earlier this week to demand the release of Kavala, which aroused the anger of the Turkish government.
Posts
All Comments
