Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared on October 23 that he had ordered the ambassadors of ten countries, including the United States, to be listed as persona non grata and that they will be expelled. After these remarks, the exchange rate of the Turkish currency lira plunged sharply and fell to a record low on October 25.
According to a report of CNBC on the October 25, the USD/TRY exchange rate was 1: 9.738, and it hit 1: 9.82 historical low earlier in the day.

Erdoğan said on October 23 that he had ordered Foreign Ministry to list ten ambassadors to Turkey from Western countries, including the United States, as persona non grata and expel them because they called on the Turkish authorities to release the detained Turkish human rights activist Osman Kavala. According to Reuters, Kavala has been in jail for four years and is accused of funding nationwide protests in 2013 and participating in the 2016 coup.

In a joint statement on October 18, the ambassadors of Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand and the United States called for a fair and rapid resolution of the Kavala case and his release. The Turkish Foreign Ministry called the statement "irresponsible" and summoned these ambassadors.

However, CNBC cited observers that the Turkish Foreign Ministry has not yet appeared to carry out Erdoğan's instructions because "none of the diplomats has been formally notified".

Erdoğan's remarks intensify the concerns over the increasing tensions between the West and Turkey, and the already weak lira exchange rate once again fall under the pressure. CNBC reported that lira has fallen 24% versus the dollar so far this year.