It was a victory for diplomacy that at first didn't seem to be within reach.

Because on Saturday the Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had quietly withdrawn after his announcement that ten ambassadors of friendly states would be declared "undesirable persons".

Rainer Hermann

Editor in politics.

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Johannes Leithäuser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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The Turkish media said that after Erdogan's first, still claused threat on Thursday, the foreign ministry had unsuccessfully tried to explain the consequences of expelling the ambassador to him.

Then, according to unconfirmed reports in the Turkish media, the American ambassador in Ankara and two confidants of Erdogan's, his astute foreign policy advisor Ibrahim Kalin and the experienced foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoglu contacted each other to find a face-saving formula and to resolve the conflict.

On Monday afternoon, the American embassy made a statement on Twitter.

It said the United States had confirmed that it respected Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and did not interfere in the host country's internal affairs.

Search for a face-saving way out

The Federal Foreign Office was involved in the initiative.

Above all, it worked with diplomats in Paris and Washington to avert the deportation of the ambassadors.

They agreed among themselves on the one-sentence statement according to which the demand for the release of Kavala should not be understood as interference in internal affairs in Turkey.

On Tuesday, the EU ambassador to Turkey, the German diplomat Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, spoke of a “face-saving way out”.

It is to be hoped that Turkey and the EU states will be able to continue working together on this basis; there are many common interests and challenges.

The tweet initially posted by the American embassy was taken over on Monday by the other ambassadors, who a week earlier and their American colleague had called for the release of the patron of culture Osman Kavala, who had been in custody for four years, which earned them the wrath of Erdogan.

The state news agency Anadolu reported late Monday afternoon that Erdogan had spoken positively about the declaration and welcomed it before the start of the weekly Council of Ministers meeting.

For the first time there were signs of relaxation.

Anadolu then gave the Turkish government the spin and headlined: "The American ambassador has given in."

However, US State Department spokesman Ned Price was later to say that the letter from the ten ambassadors at Kavala was not in violation of the Vienna Convention and would be done again.

Erdogan speaks of Turkey's honor

After the end of the meeting of the Council of Ministers, Erdogan was conciliatory.

It was never his aim to cause a crisis, he said soothingly.

Rather, it was more important for him to preserve Turkey's honor.

Turkey would not accept anyone who did not show respect for Turkey's independence.

There was no longer any talk of the threatened expulsion of the ambassadors.