Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered his foreign minister to declare the ambassadors of 10 countries "persona non grata", saying that they "lack tact."

Erdogan said on October 23, 2021 that he had ordered the Foreign Ministry to consider the ambassadors of 10 countries - including the United States, Germany and France - "persona non grata", against the background of their call for the release of opposition businessman Osman Kavala.

In diplomatic customs and traditions, what the Turkish president did is a form of protest, which has many forms and types, between “letters of protest”, “summoning the ambassador for consultations”, “reducing representation”, “declaring the ambassador persona non grata” and “severing relations”.

protest letters

- November 25, 2014: Three Israeli letters of protest reached the Jordanian government, after members of the House of Representatives recited Al-Fatihah on the souls of the two martyrs who carried out the Jerusalem operations, Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal, and Amman summoned the Israeli ambassador to it, Daniel Nevo, against the background of his statements in which he ridiculed Parliament. Jordanian.

June 1, 2021: The Palestinian Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassadors of 4 European countries, Britain, Austria, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, and handed them letters of protest against their countries' negative vote on resolutions related to Palestine at the United Nations Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization.

July 15, 2021: The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the Greek ambassador in Ankara, Michal Christos Diamsis, and handed him a note of protest against what it described as the "ill-treatment" faced by the Turkish "Galatasaray" football team at Athens airport.

"reduced representation"

Diplomatic representation is a manifestation of the state’s external sovereignty, and accordingly, fully sovereign states have the right to send and accept diplomatic envoys, while states lacking sovereignty, such as protected, dependent, trusteeship or managed by other states, usually do not have the ability to send diplomatic envoys from its party, and it shall be represented abroad by the protectorate, dependent, trustee or administering power.

A reduction in diplomatic relations means either a reduction in the size of the permanent diplomatic mission in terms of the number of its members, or a reduction in the degree of representation, and these two cases, although usually accompanied by tense political relations between the two countries, do not lead to the closure of permanent diplomatic missions, nor to the withdrawal of their employees to their country. .

Reducing the size of the diplomatic mission may be at the initiative of the sending country or at the request of the country receiving the diplomatic mission. As for the reduction in the degree of representation, it occurs when summoning or leaving the head of the diplomatic mission for consultation and official summons without accepting the acceptance request for his successor, in these cases the diplomatic mission continues in its function Under the chairmanship of the chargé d'affaires.

May 2018: The Israeli government ordered its army to suppress the return marches by force, killing 60 Palestinians and wounding hundreds, including many children and women, in one day. At the time, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of committing a massacre.

Turkey decided to reduce its diplomatic representation with Tel Aviv, and ordered the Israeli ambassador to Ankara, Eitan Naeh, and the Istanbul consul, Yossi Safran Levy, to leave the country.

November 30, 2018: Israel decided not to appoint new diplomats to it in Ankara and Istanbul, and to reduce the level of its diplomatic representation in Turkey, in accordance with the principle of "reciprocity".

Reciprocity

Tensions escalated in Russian-European relations due to Moscow's rejection of European Union calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, as well as for a full and impartial investigation into the assassination attempt.

February 5, 2021: Moscow announced the expulsion of 3 diplomats from the missions of Germany, Poland and Sweden, on the grounds that they were accused of participating in demonstrations in support of Navalny.

February 8, 2021: The German Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of an employee of the Russian Embassy in Berlin, in the framework of the principle of "reciprocity", against the background of the expulsion of a German diplomat from Moscow.

The German ministry said in a statement that it classified an employee of the Russian embassy in Berlin as "persona non grata", without specifying his name.

October 6, 2021: NATO announced the expulsion of 8 members of its Russian mission, accusing them of secretly knowing intelligence officers.

stop missions

The cessation of diplomatic relations between states represents a special situation, as it means that the diplomatic mission is for some reason unable to represent the interests of the sending state in the receiving state without the diplomatic relations being severed between the two states.

Suspension of diplomatic relations means that relations with the concerned country have been temporarily cut off with the mission left in its place without official functions.

October 18, 2021: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that his country will suspend the work of its office with NATO, starting from the first of next November.

"In response to the actions of the alliance, we have suspended the work of our permanent mission to NATO, including the work of the main military representative," Lavrov said during a press conference. "The activities of the NATO Information Office in Moscow have been terminated."

call the ambassador

The so-called “summoning the ambassador” is an expression that has more than one diplomatic and legal connotation, sometimes used to express that a country withdraws its ambassador from another country, and in this case the diplomatic mission continues to perform its work under the chairmanship of the chargé d’affaires a.i., a procedure that practically means lowering the level of Diplomatic representation - even if temporarily - as an expression of the state's dissatisfaction with the policies and positions of another state.

- This procedure takes many forms, the most famous of which is that a country summons its ambassador to consult on the issues in dispute or protest, and this may be done through the country’s slowness in sending a new ambassador to replace his predecessor, whose term has naturally expired, and this may also be done through the ambassador’s leave in His persistence is deliberately and understandably long.

October 2, 2021: Algeria announced the recall of its ambassador to Paris, Mohamed Antar Daoud, "for consultations", after relations deteriorated between the two countries against the background of statements by French President Emmanuel Macron that Algeria considered "offensive to it".

- Withdrawing the ambassador may continue for a long time, as happened with Egypt when it withdrew Saad Mortada from Tel Aviv in protest against the Israeli aggression against Lebanon in 1982, and the mission continued without an ambassador for 4 years until one of the members of the mission was promoted to the rank of ambassador (Mohamed Bassiouni).

The other country usually responds with a similar measure to save face, and sometimes this does not happen. Egypt withdrew its ambassador Abdel Fattah Amr from London in 1951, and Britain did not respond in kind.

- The expression “summoning the ambassador” is also used to denote a procedure completely different from all of the above, and this means that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summons the ambassador of a country to the ministry’s headquarters to meet with one of its officials to inform him of the country’s dissatisfaction with the policies of the ambassador’s country or the behavior of the ambassador himself.

The objectives of this summons are multiple and gradual, starting with simply asking for clarifications on a subject, and informing the ambassador may have a clear protest.

- September 29, 2021: The Algerian Foreign Ministry summoned the French ambassador, François Gouyat, to protest Paris' decision to tighten visa procedures for Algerians.

Summoning the ambassador .. non-negative connotations

The expression “summoning the ambassador” is also used in another sense devoid of any negative connotations, and it means the ambassador’s return to his country naturally, either due to the expiry of his term of work in that country, or for his promotion to another position in his country, or for his transfer to head a mission in another country, or to The General Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or reaching retirement age.

- In all these cases, the ambassador will organize procedures similar to the procedures for his approval at the beginning of his mission, such as submitting a letter of summons to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the receiving country, meeting its senior officials to bid them farewell, sometimes obtaining badges and medals and bidding farewell to his counterparts from the ambassadors of other countries and responding to many invitations to honor him, Although the procedure itself bears the name "Summon the Ambassador".

Persona non grata, diplomats expelled

The goal of the summons may reach the maximum, which is to inform the ambassador of the famous phrase “considering him persona non grata”, an expression that means the end of his status in the country, and the need to leave its territory within 48 hours, and this is one of the harshest diplomatic escalation procedures, and it occurs only in rare cases.

The reasons that may make a diplomat considered a “persona non grata” vary from making unfriendly statements about state policies and trying to interfere in its internal affairs to carrying out espionage work, visiting prohibited areas without prior permission, or exploiting immunity to engage in smuggling crimes, or In the event of a sharp deterioration in relations between the two countries.

Historically, Kurt Waldheim and his wife were declared persona non grata in the United States and other countries, after being accused of "obtaining information about war crimes committed by the Nazis and did not do what was necessary in this regard."

- September 1952: The authorities of the former Soviet Union declared the then US ambassador to it, George Kennan, "persona non grata" after he made a statement that Moscow considered linking it with Nazi Germany.

2008: Israel described Richard Falk (the American university professor who assumed the role of the UN rapporteur on human rights monitoring in the Palestinian territories) as "persona non grata" after he compared Israel's treatment of the Palestinians to the behavior of the Nazis with the Jews.

2011: The United States expelled the Ecuadorean ambassador, deeming him “persona non grata” within the framework of the reciprocal diplomacy known as “tit for tat,” after Ecuador expelled the American ambassador to it after the WikiLeaks documents of the US State Department appeared saying that Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa was Aware of the involvement of senior security officials in the country in corruption cases.

- November 2015: China declared Miss Canada Anastasia Lin "persona non grata" because of her outspoken defense of human rights and freedom of religious belief in China.

- April 2021: The war of expulsion of diplomats escalated with Moscow announcing the expulsion of 20 employees of the Czech embassy in Moscow, who are now considered “persona non grata”, in response to the Czech expulsion of 18 Russian diplomats involved, according to Czech intelligence, in sabotaging an ammunition depot that resulted in two deaths. year 2014.

Days earlier, Russia asked 10 American diplomats to leave its territory in response to Washington's decision to expel a similar number of Russian diplomats because of "malicious activities."

The "diplomatic war" included Poland, where Russia announced the expulsion of 5 Polish diplomats after Poland declared 3 employees of the Russian Embassy in Warsaw "persona non grata".

- June 18, 2021: The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the Chargé d'Affairs of the North Macedonian Embassy to Russia Oliveira Chausevskaya Dimovskaya, who handed her a Russian note regarding declaring an employee of her country's embassy in Moscow persona non grata, in response to a similar action taken by North Macedonia towards a diplomat The Russians have it last May.

Cut the relationships

The severing of diplomatic relations expresses an extreme degree of tension that goes beyond all attempts at settlement, as well as a catastrophic failure to communicate and solve inter-problems regardless of the responsibility or desire of this or that party for the escalation.

Severing diplomatic relations is the highest and clearest political expression of the aggravation of the dispute and hostility between two countries to an extent that almost touches the borders of open confrontation, and is sometimes a harbinger and an indication of the outbreak of armed conflict.

The reciprocal or non-reciprocal expulsion of some diplomatic representatives, and the severance of consular, commercial, air, sea and postal relations, do not at all constitute cases of severance of diplomatic relations, and do not produce any of the legal effects of severing diplomatic relations.

- The Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations of 1962 stipulate the inviolability of diplomatic premises, and the continuation of this inviolability even in light of the diplomatic estrangement that does not mean severing consular relations is a necessity. Sometimes consular relations remain in place despite the diplomatic estrangement.

- The diplomatic estrangement is embodied in the decision-making state announcing the official severance of its relations with the other state, and at the same time summoning its ambassador and its entire diplomatic mission from the other state and closing its diplomatic headquarters, and at the same time it was decided to expel the diplomats of the other state while giving them a deadline to arrange their affairs in a hurry, though Customs set that time limit between 48 hours and a week.

- Taking care of the interests of a particular country in the other country can be entrusted to a country or a third party, and the diplomatic estrangement does not mean banning the travel of the citizens of a concerned country towards the other country unless a sovereign decision is issued in this regard.

- In many cases, the diplomatic rupture precedes the declaration of war, although the international context following the Second World War witnessed many cases of severing diplomatic relations without this causing an immediate armed conflict.

May 15, 1965: The Council of Foreign Ministers of the League of Arab States issued a decision severing diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany, and 10 of the 13 Arab countries, members of the League at the time, cut diplomatic relations with Bonn, while Libya, Tunisia and Morocco, on the contrary, maintained their relations with the Federal Republic of Germany.

A diplomat can only be arrested by virtue of a decision by his country to lift his immunity, as the Vienna Conventions stipulate the inviolability of diplomatic premises even after the severance of relations.

November 1979: Hundreds of students supporting the Islamic revolution in Iran stormed the US embassy in Tehran, and took 44 of its staff and ordinary American citizens hostage in what was known as the "hostage crisis".

- The United States immediately recalled its ambassador, and as the crisis continued, it announced the severance of diplomatic relations, although that would not end it. It continued until Algerian mediation succeeded in putting an end to it in January 1981.

Early 2016: The estrangement between Saudi Arabia and Iran occurred due to the Saudi authorities' execution of the Shiite dissident Nimr Baqir al-Nimr after he was convicted of "terrorism" issues.

collective estrangement

Sometimes, the diplomatic estrangement speaks to the position of a number of parties towards a particular party, as happened following the visit of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Israel in 1977, when the Arab countries decided to boycott Egypt, and that estrangement lasted for a decade.

1990: Iraq invaded Kuwait, and several Arab countries decided to cut diplomatic relations with Baghdad.

2011: With the outbreak of the revolution against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, several Arab countries, along with Turkey, cut their relations with the Syrian regime as punishment for the widespread repression and heinous crimes it committed against its citizens.

2016: Gulf and Arab countries decided to sever their relations with Iran, or recall their ambassadors and lower the level of relations, in solidarity with Saudi Arabia, whose relations with Iran worsened.