ANKARA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday stepped up his rhetoric in a bitter row with the European Union over arrests of opposition media, saying the bloc has no right to give lessons in democracy and should itself “look in the mirror.”
The bitter row over the EU’s criticism of weekend arrests of journalists and television staff linked to US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen has raised new doubts about the future of Turkey’s stalled bid to join the 28-member bloc. Erdogan, who earlier this week astonished EU officials by telling Brussels to “mind their own business,” indicated he had no intention of walking away from a confrontation.
“They say they will give a democracy lesson to Turkey. Take the trouble to come here, so that Turkey can give you a lesson in democracy,” he said in a speech in the Anatolian city of Konya. He told Brussels to “look in the mirror” in its dealings with Egypt and Syria in particular and said Turkey would never be the European Union’s “doorman.”
His diatribe came on the 10th anniversary of the EU’s greenlight for starting formal membership negotiations with Ankara which have stumbled on several issues
“They’ve been dragging feet over the last decade…. Sorry, but we are not the EU’s doorman,” the president said
“If they let us in, they do. If they don’t, they don’t,” he said. “You may speak against Turkey as much as you like. We will draw our own route.”
Erdogan warned the EU not to give “advice” to Turkey.
“Let me repeat it, those who try to advise Turkey by shaking their finger, just like a governess, must understand that they are no longer facing the old Turkey,” he said.
“They say they will give Turkey a lesson in freedoms. You first go and give an account of rising racism, Islamophobia and discrimination in Europe,” he added. His comments came a day after EU ministers agreed to take a harder line on Turkey’s aspirations to join the bloc, saying that the detention of journalists “call into question the respect for freedom of media, which is a core principle of democracy.”
Turkey’s governing Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) co-founded by Erdogan has pursued sweeping domestic reforms, leading to the EU giving the go-ahead for the start of formal talks three years after the party came to power in 2002.
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