Swiss embassy in Turkey reopens after terror warning

The Swiss embassy in Turkey has reopened after being closed due to a terrorism warning. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided on the basis of a new assessment of the situation. Previously, the Swiss representations in Turkey had been closed for five days.

The Swiss representations in Ankara and Istanbul have been open again since Monday, the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) wrote on Friday at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency.

On February 1, Switzerland temporarily closed its representations in Turkey. It followed the US and other European countries. This had warned its citizens of an increased risk of attacks in Turkey and closed some of their representations early this week. According to the EDA, the reason for the closure was “tangible information about an imminent terrorist attack”.

The closures angered Turkey. This was then ordered by the Swiss ambassador – along with eight other diplomatic representatives of European countries. The subject of the talks was the temporary closure of these countries’ representations in the current context, it said.

Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu had previously made it clear that he suspected a foreign conspiracy behind the closures rather than a real risk of an attack. (sda)