蜜芽传媒

The opposition in Turkey says President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's order to expel ten ambassadors from allied nations is a smokescreen to mask the country's economic woes. With no sign of expulsions taking place, the opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu accused President Erdogan of taking the country to the brink in his determination to suppress interest rates. President Erdogan said the diplomats were being expelled for what he considered an insolent demand for the release of Osman Kavala, a philanthropist and businessman jailed four years ago . The ambassadors appealed to Mr Erdogan to heed a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights to release Mr Kavala, who denies backing anti-government riots eight years ago and involvement in the failed coup of 2016. Mr Kavala's wife, Ay艧e Bu臒ra, tells Newshour while she did not know if the row would help bring her husband's freedom closer, but she said the case had highlighted wider problems within the Turkish justice system.

(Photo: Osman Kavala at the European Parliament headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on 11 December 2014. Credit: Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)