Taste of His Own Medicine: Erdogan Accuses Europe of Dictatorship, Cruelty
Just days after taking a hard line on the EU-Turkey deal, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the EU of “dictatorship” and “cruelty” for closing their borders to migrants.
8
May, 2016
Turkey's
president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking at the short film festival
"Mercy and Justice", organized by Çekmeköy Istanbul
Municipality, accused the EU countries for "dictatorship"
and "cruelty" for closing their borders for asylum seekers
from Middle East, noting that the EU has no "mercy" and no
"justice".
Earlier
this week Erdogan refused to change Turkey's anti-terrorism
legislation, as it was meant by the Turkey-EU deal, orchestrated by
PM Ahmet Davutoglu, saying that Europe should first remove tents of
Kurdish "terrorists" from the square at the EU Headquarters
in Brussels. As Erdogan put it, the demand to change Turkish
legislation came at a time when the country is under constant threat
of terrorist attacks.
According
to the deal, Turkey was to accept a significant amount of migrants
that used Turkey to illegally cross the EU border. In exchange, the
EU was to provide, among other things, visa-free travel for Turkish
tourists. However, in order to fulfill this deal, Turkey was to
change its own anti-terrorism legislation, which Erdogan refused to
do.
Experts
have expressed concern that the EU-Turkey deal may fall apart if
Turkey does not agree to changes in the anti-terrorism law.
Erdogan's
words against the EU came after Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who
negotiated the EU-Turkey deal, announced he would step down later
this month, following a rift with Erdogan.
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