'Erdoğan's foreign policy is bipolar, detached from reality'

İYİ Party leader Meral Akşener said on Oct. 25 that the president was conducting a "bipolar foreign policy that was detached from reality," as she commented on a row between 10 Western ambassadors and Erdoğan.

Tuesday October 26 2021 12:13 pm

Duvar English

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is conducting a bipolar and personal foreign policy that's detached from reality, Good (İYİ) Party leader Meral Akşener said on Oct. 25 while commenting on the president's row with 10 Western ambassadors that urged the release of jailed philanthropist Osman Kavala.

Turkey and its Western allies climbed down from a full-blown diplomatic crisis on Oct. 25 after foreign embassies said that they abide by diplomatic conventions on non-interference, averting a threatened expulsion of 10 ambassadors.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who said at the weekend he had ordered the envoys to be declared "persona non grata" for seeking Kavala's release, told a news conference they had stepped back and would be more careful.

Speaking to Karar TV, Akşener said that it was Turkey's transition to a presidential system that had brought the country's foreign policy to such a redundant point.

The president directs foreign policy according to his whims, and personally tailors policies to his wishes, Akşener said, adding that Turkey is mandated to comply with European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rulings about Kavala.

"It stops being internal affairs when a country fails to comply with ECHR rulings. Foreign policy needs to have some credibility. Currently, the mentality is devoid of reason, detached from reality, personal and bipolar."

The president is having an internal crisis and putting Turkey through a serious internal affairs crisis, Akşener added.