As the lira tanks, so does the stock of Turkey’s president

AGOOD DUST-UP with one Western ally or another is something that Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, always relishes. On October 23rd he took on ten of them at the same time, announcing that he had ordered the American, French, German, Dutch, Canadian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, and New Zealand ambassadors to be declared personae non gratae, a prelude to having them kicked out of the country. Their offence was to have signed a letter urging Turkey to release Osman Kavala, a philanthropist locked up on farcical terror and coup charges. It took another couple of days, the exhortations of Turkish officials, who warned him of the dire potential consequences to the country’s economy, and a carefully crafted statement by the American embassy, in which the mission said it did not meddle in Turkey’s domestic affairs, before Mr Erdogan backed down. The envoys were allowed to remain in Ankara.After nearly provoking, then averting, the biggest diplomatic crisis Turkey has seen in decades, Mr Erdogan proclaimed victory. The envoys “took a step back from the slander against our country”, he said. “They will be more careful now.”