Tankara [Turkey], October 24 (ANI/Sputnik): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's decision to declare personae non grata ambassadors of 10 countries that have called on Ankara to release human rights activist Osman Kavala is designed to justify Turkey's economic crisis, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said on Sunday.

On Tuesday, the embassies of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the US made a joint appeal to release Kavala after four years under arrest. In response, the Turkish foreign minister summoned the 10 ambassadors and Erdogan threatened to expel them from the country over the violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

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"The person who quickly dragged the country into the abyss gave the order to declare 10 ambassadors persona non grata. I can clearly say that the reason for these actions is not to protect national interests, but to create artificial excuses for the collapse of the economy that he destroyed," Kilicdaroglu tweeted.

On Thursday, the Central Bank of Turkey slashed a key interest rate by 2 percentage points to 16% against the backdrop of record plunging of the Turkish lira. After that, the national currency hit a new historic low of 9.64 per 1 US dollar on Friday. (ANI/Sputnik)

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(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)