The Turkish President emphasizes that his country does not need the EU.
(Photo: AP)
It didn’t even take a week before the Chancellor’s warm words were gone. In Istanbul on October 16, Angela Merkel emphasized the importance of relations with Turkey. Now it could be that your ambassador has to leave the Turkish capital Ankara.
The dispute over the public demand of the ambassadors of Turkey, the USA and eight other nations to release the cultural promoter Osman Kavala, who was imprisoned in Turkey, has now turned into a scandal. President Erdogan announced on Saturday that he would have the ambassadors involved declare “istenmeyen adam” – “undesirable persons”.
In diplomatic Latin this would be translated as “persona non grata”, which would usually result in the formal expulsion of the respective persons. Erdogan wants to show strength, but does the opposite. He himself can only lose – in the worst case, his re-election. Not only did he jeopardize relations with many influential countries, including Germany’s largest trading partner. He has also snubbed the USA and France, two veto powers in the UN Security Council.
In addition, Erdogan’s strategy has driven the price up. Now the ten participating states, including many EU members, can argue as follows: no diplomatic rapprochement without the release of Kavala; no talks about a customs union without the release of Kavala; no “positive agenda” with the EU without the release of Kavala; and no rapprochement with Washington without the release of Kavala.
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In addition, it is now clear: Turkey is in election campaign mode, more than a year and a half before the targeted election date in June 2023, the 100th year of the Turkish Republic. Erdogan’s approach was risky – and the opposition took this directly as an opportunity to target the president for it.
Erdogan fell into the trap
The Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu in particular sharply criticized Erdogan’s statements. Erdogan did not want to represent national interests with the move, but to distract from the desolate economic situation, he wrote on Twitter.
This is how clever opposition work works, even when Kilicdaroglu’s CHP party disagrees with the West on some issues, such as migration and the dispute over sea borders and gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean.
It doesn’t matter, because it is always Erdogan whose tactless approach gnaws at one’s own reputation. He is constantly losing approval in surveys. According to surveys, three other potential candidates already have a better chance than him of being elected president. Erdogan’s AKP and coalition partner MHP would no longer get a majority in parliament.
Some of his voters may even welcome the possible expulsion of the ten ambassadors. But in the end it doesn’t help him, because Erdogan fell into the trap of the West.
More: High gas prices make Turkey and the EU rivals again.