Threats,
insults and praise: 9 Erdoğan quotes on Europe
Turkish
president makes no secret of his dislike for the EU’s handling of
the refugee crisis — most of the time.
By JACOPO BARIGAZZI
5/28/16, 6:30 AM CET
Will the real Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan please stand up?
The Turkish
president can at times come across as a Western-focused reformer
pushing for EU membership, but more often his public statements
towards Europe are aggressive and confrontational. This is, after
all, a man who had a teenager jailed for making unfavorable comments
on Facebook and seized control of the Zaman newspaper for taking a
critical line.
Since March, when
the EU and Ankara signed a deal on migration, the prospect of
visa-free travel for Turkish citizens has been within reach and
accession talks have been re-energized. But that hasn’t stopped
Erdoğan from criticizing the EU.
There have been so
many insults that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker
hit back while in Japan for the G7, saying: “Threats are not the
best diplomatic instrument you can use — so one should stop using
them, because they will produce no effect whatsoever.”
Here are selection
of Erdoğan’s pro- and anti-EU comments:
1. Europe needs
Turkey
“The European
Union needs Turkey more than Turkey needs the European Union,” he
said in a televised speech on April 19. Yet Turkey has few friends on
the international stage: its relationship with Russia is frosty and
U.S. President Barack Obama has criticized Erdoğan for clamping down
on freedom of the press.
2. Don’t bully
Turkey on terrorism
“The EU says ‘you
will change the anti-terror law for a visa,’” Erdoğan said in a
speech in Istanbul in early May, referring to one of the EU’s
conditions for granting visa-free travel. “Pardon me but we are
going our way and you can go yours.”
He was speaking just
hours after ousting Turkey’s pro-European prime minister.
3. Europe’s the
one with the problem
“First of all, we
expect EU countries to fix their own laws that support terrorism,”
he said a few days after the previous comment, calling on the EU to
answer why it allowed activists from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) to set up tents near the European Council in March. He went on:
“European countries continue to be safe havens for the political
extensions of terrorist groups. When this is the case, it’s a piece
of black comedy that the EU criticizes our country over the
definition of terrorism.”
4. EU is making it
up as it goes along
“They laid down 72
benchmarks. These benchmarks just came out. These benchmarks weren’t
there beforehand,” he said on May 10, referring to the criteria
that Turkey has to fulfill to secure visa liberalization. But there’s
a problem: he was prime minister when these benchmarks were
negotiated.
5. Europe cares more
about whales
“Shame on those in
the West who divert their sensitivity to the so-called freedoms,
rights and laws shown in the debate over gay marriage away from
Syrian women, children, and innocents in need of aid,” Erdoğan
said on May 13.
He didn’t stop
there: “Shame on those who don’t show sensitivity … to the
women and children who reach out to them for help. Shame on those who
deny the sensitivity they show to … the whales, the seals and the
turtles in the sea to 23 million Syrians.”
6. No deal — we
open the floodgates
“We can open the
doors to Greece and Bulgaria anytime and we can put the refugees on
buses [heading to Europe] … So how will you deal with refugees if
you don’t get a deal? Kill the refugees?” According to a Greek
newspaper, that’s what the Turkish president told EU officials in
November 2015. The Turkish government didn’t deny it and Erdoğan
later confirmed the remarks, saying that he was “proud” of them.
7. Two-faced
Europeans
“Everyone who
complains about the refugees is two-faced and hypocritical,”
Erdoğan said in a televised speech in March, including “all those
who have not accepted a no-fly zone and a zone cleared of terror in
Syria.” The Turkish leader is angry at European leaders for failing
to protect Syrians from deadly air attacks by refusing to establish a
no-fly zone over northeastern Syria. He claimed that such a move
would have prevented the refugee crisis.
Now for the
EU-friendly side of Erdoğan…
8. Let’s cooperate
“To keep illegal
immigration under control, Europe and Turkey must work together to
create legal mechanisms, such as the March 2016 agreement, for the
resettlement of Syrian refugees,” he wrote in the Guardian. “By
rewarding refugees who play by the rules and making it clear that
illegal immigrants will be sent back to Turkey, we can persuade
refugees to avoid risking their lives at sea.”
9. EU membership is
important
“EU membership, a
strategic goal for Turkey, will be a source of stability and
inspiration for the region,” he said in a statement released to
coincide with Europe Day at the start of May. “I hope that the
agreed visa exemption [deal] will relieve some of the frustration
caused by more than 50 years of waiting at the EU’s gates … and
that it accelerates Turkey’s accession process.”
He was speaking days
after saying Turkey would not make changes to its terrorism laws.
Authors:
Jacopo Barigazzi
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