Turkey
“You can’t break a hair with this people”: Interior Minister defends Erdogan’s actions against ambassadors
The Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu
© Burhan Ozbilici / DPA
In the diplomatic crisis between Turkey and several states, including Germany, the fronts remain hardened. The Turkish interior minister defended the crackdown on ten ambassadors with martial words.
The Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has defended his country’s actions against the German and nine other ambassadors. “Let them come with cannons or with rifles. Let them gather not just ten ambassadors, but ambassadors from all over the world here. You can not break a hair of this people,” said Soylu, according to the state news agency Anadolu on Saturday evening in Istanbul.
Opposition party CHP criticizes Erdogan’s actions
The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had previously announced that the ambassadors of ten countries would be declared undesirable. He had instructed the Foreign Ministry to do so. Such a step usually means the expulsion of the diplomats; however, they will then be given a deadline for leaving the country.
The largest opposition party, the CHP, criticized the action taken against the Western diplomats. The CHP politician and ex-ambassador Ünal Ceviköz warned of Turkey’s isolation at international level and called on Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu to correct the “mistake”. Otherwise, he would have to resign, he wrote on Twitter.