The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) announced today that it will close its embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara due to concerns over security.
Last night, the FCO issued a statement on its website saying: “The British Embassy Ankara will be closed to the public on Friday 16 September for security reasons”. The FCO did not immediately make clear what the “security reasons” were.
Earlier this week, Germany temporarily closed its embassy in Ankara, consular offices and a school amid reports of the possibility of attacks during the Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha. The source of the potential attacks was not immediately clear.
The FCO advised Britons “against all travel to within 10km of the border with Syria and to the city of Diyarbakir”, suggesting that the security concerns could be related to either Daesh or Kurdish separatists from the PKK.
The PKK are considered to be a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU and have been fighting a violent separatist campaign against the Turkish government since 1984.
In a statement released today, Britain’s foreign office said it had shut its embassy in Ankara for “security reasons”.
“Turkish authorities are taking necessary precautions about the threat,” Richard Moore, Britain’s ambassador to Turkey, wrote on Twitter.
“But it is an acceptable policy to close down the embassy in a situation like this”.
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