Erdogan threats the Western diplomatic missions in Türkiye who closed their doors
The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Western diplomatic missions in Türkiye would pay for issuing security warnings and temporarily closing their consulates in the country last week, while police said there was no serious threat to foreigners after the arrest of 15 Islamic State suspects.
Ankara summoned nine ambassadors to criticize the coordinated closure of European consulates.
Turkish officials later said that Western countries hadn’t provided them with information to support what they said was a security threat.
“On that day, our Foreign Ministry summoned all of them and warned them, telling them, ‘You will pay a heavy price for this if you continue this,” Erdogan said during a meeting with young men, which was recorded earlier and broadcast on Sunday.
In addition to the closures, several European countries issued warnings to their citizens of the increased risks of attacks on diplomatic missions and non-Islamic places of worship in Türkiye, after protests in Europe in recent weeks witnessed the burning of copies of the Quran by far-rightists.
And Türkiye suspended negotiations on the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO after a protest in Stockholm saw the burning of a copy of the Quran.
Erdogan said that “Western countries are playing to buy more time,” stressing that “necessary decisions will be taken during the cabinet meeting on Monday,” without going into details.
Earlier, Turkish state media quoted the police as saying that they hadn’t found evidence indicating any concrete threat to foreigners after the arrest of 15 suspected members of the Islamic State, accusing them of targeting consulates and places of worship of religions other than Islam.
The Anadolu news agency quoted a statement from Istanbul police as saying that the suspects received instructions regarding actions targeting the consulates of Sweden and the Netherlands, as well as Christian and Jewish places of worship.
The statement said the suspects’ links to the Islamic State group had already been confirmed, but that the authorities hadn’t concluded that there were concrete threats to foreigners.
Last Saturday, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reiterated his country’s dissatisfaction with what it says is Sweden’s inaction with entities that Ankara accuses of terrorism.
Türkiye, Sweden and Finland signed an agreement last June aimed at overcoming Ankara’s objections to the two countries’ bid to join NATO, and the two countries pledged to take a tougher stance against members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on their soil.
