July 01, 2026
Five years ago, the West risked a full-blown diplomatic crisis with NATO ally Turkey when 10 ambassadors called for the release of a man they saw as a political prisoner, prompting an angry President Tayyip Erdogan to order their expulsion.
After two frantic daysin 2021, the sides stepped back from the brink with the US, French, German, Canadian and other envoys issuing conciliatory statements and Erdogan saying they would be more careful in the future.
And so they have been.
Since then — and especially since Russia's invasion of Ukraine a year later left Europe feeling exposed — the West has mostly avoided publicly raising concerns about Turkey's record on rights and freedoms, instead focusing on boosting security ties with the regional military power and big arms exporter.
