For now, Turkey, West avert diplomatic crisis

Turkey and its Western allies climbed down from a full-blown diplomatic crisis on Monday after foreign embassies said that they abide by diplomatic conventions on non-interference, averting a threatened expulsion of 10 ambassadors. President Tayyip Erdogan, who said at the weekend he had ordered the envoys to be declared "persona non grata" for seeking the release of a jailed philanthropist, told a news conference they had stepped back and would be more careful. The ambassadors, including the US envoy, had called on authorities last week to free Osman Kavala, a philanthropist detained for four years on charges of financing protests and involvement in an attempted coup. He denies the charges.