Turkey’s dispute with the United States eases after the threat to expel envoys

Tensions between Turkey and 10 Western countries, including the United States, eased days after the Turkish president threatened to ban their ambassadors.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered deportations after envoys called for the release of a jailed activist last week.

But on Monday, the countries involved said they will not interfere in Turkey’s affairs.

An adviser to Erdogan told the BBC that the president welcomed this and that the matter has almost been resolved.

BBC Middle East correspondent Tom Bateman said the president’s move appears to defuse a new diplomatic crisis with the Western powers concerned, although its underlying causes remain.

The dispute flared up when the embassies of the United States, Germany, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden issued an unusual statement calling for the release of jailed philanthropist Osman Kavala.

The 64-year-old has been in jail for four years without conviction for protests and an attempted military coup in 2016.

Kavala denies any wrongdoing and critics of the Erdogan government say his case is an example of widespread repression of dissent.

The Council of Europe, Europe’s leading human rights watchdog, has given Turkey a final warning to listen to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights to free Kavala pending trial.

President Erdogan was furious at the intervention of the ambassadors.

“I gave the necessary order to our foreign minister and I told them what to do,” he told a crowd on Saturday. “These 10 ambassadors must be declared immediately persona non grata”.

Persona non grata – in the sense of unwelcome person – can remove diplomatic status and often involves the expulsion or withdrawal of recognition of the envoys.

But the president appears to have pulled back from that decision after the US embassy and others in Turkey made statements as he entered a cabinet meeting.

The embassies cited part of an international treaty that states that ambassadors have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of the host country.

“The United States observes that it maintains compliance with Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” the US embassy said on Twitter.