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Erdogan says EU on ‘anti-Islam crusade’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said the EU has started a crusade against Islam with a ruling on Islamic headscarves and warned the Netherlands that Ankara was no longer a friend, in a worsening diplomatic crisis.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan / AFP PHOTO / ADEM ALTAN

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said the EU has started a crusade against Islam with a ruling on Islamic headscarves and warned the Netherlands that Ankara was no longer a friend, in a worsening diplomatic crisis.

Turkey and the European Union are locked in their most explosive row in years after key EU members Germany and the Netherlands blocked Turkish ministers from holding rallies to win support for expanding Erdogan’s powers in a referendum.

Ankara has expressed dismay over the rise of the anti-immigrant far-right in Europe but on Wednesday showed no pleasure over the election win of liberal Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, with the crisis showing no sign of abating.

Erdogan accused the EU’s top court of starting a “crusade” against Islam after a ruling that allows European companies to ban employees from wearing religious or political symbols including the Islamic headscarf.

“The European Union’s court, the European Court of Justice, my esteemed brothers, have started a crusade struggle against the (Muslim) crescent,” Erdogan said in a televised speech.

“Europe is swiftly rolling back to the days before World War II,” he added.

– ‘Rutte same as Wilders’ –
In Wednesday’s elections, Dutch voters returned Rutte’s liberals to power seeing off a challenge from the party of anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders.

But with the acrimony that followed the blocking by the Dutch of Turkish ministers from holding political rallies still raging, Ankara said it saw no difference between the Dutch parties.

“Hey Rutte! You may have emerged as the number one party in the election but you must know that you have lost Turkey as your friend,” Erdogan said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu earlier said there was “no difference” between the ruling Dutch liberals and the “fascist” Wilders.

Cavusoglu also predicted that “religious wars” will start in Europe due to the rise of the far right, saying the continent was being taken “to the cliff”.

– ‘Unacceptable remarks’ –
Erdogan has enflamed the row by repeatedly accusing Dutch and German politicians of acting like “Nazis”. On Wednesday, he claimed the “spirit of fascism” was rampant in Europe.

Analysts say the Turkish strongman wants to be seen as standing up strongly to Europe in order to sweep up nationalist votes ahead of the April 16 referendum on the constitutional changes expanding his powers.

But his volcanic rhetoric has not gone down well in the EU and has raised questions about the continuation of Turkey’s half century long bid to join the bloc.

The French and German leaders on Thursday condemned Erdogan’s “unacceptable” remarks.

Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel “consider comparisons with Nazism and aggressive statements against Germany and other member states unacceptable”, they said in a joint statement after speaking by telephone, the French president’s office said.

– ‘Implement migrant deal’ –
Turkey has also raised alarm in Brussels by threatening to unilaterally scrap a March 2016 deal that has substantially reduced the flow of migrants and refugees to the EU.

“We can stop it (the deal) unilaterally. We have not yet informed our (EU) counterparts, all of this is in our hands,” Cavusoglu told 24 TV in an interview.

“From now on, we can say ‘we will not apply it and it will be over’,” he added.

He lambasted the EU for failing to allow Turks visa-free travel in return for the deal, an incentive that had been promised to Turkey if it fulfilled its side of the bargain.

The deal has been praised for preventing a repeat of the surge of migrants into Europe seen in 2015 that fanned the rise of the far-right.

The EU Commission said that it expected Turkey to implement the accord.

“This is an engagement of mutual trust and delivery and we expect that both sides will comply with their commitments,” spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters.

Cavusoglu said Turkey was no longer implementing a key part of the deal, whereby it took back migrants who landed on the Greek islands as a deterrent.

3 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    Why do you have to impose your Religion believes or Culture on other people hosting you as a refugee’s , You have to obey their Laws and understanding, its your own problems ? , do anybody care about Islam in your Country?, so why do you care about other Countries view in respect to Islam. Country says NO , thats the end of the stories.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Erdogan, you see how it hurts?

    Come to Nigeria and appeal to your fellow Muslims here about their anti Christian crusade that has now been couched in marauding “Foreign Fulani Herdsmen” that has ended up with thousands of ordinary villagers being brutally murdered!

  • Author’s gravatar

    You guys are all over Western Europe perpetually sponging on their social benefit gravy and often engaging in some form of drug dealings on the side. Not done, you insist your religious views must be imposed over those of your hosts. Back in your home countries, you do not tolerate the sight of a crucifix on any public building, nor would you stomach a cry of hallelujah! in a public domain.
    As refugees – and their could be as many as eleven members to a family – you are allowed to enjoy the benefits of free housing, food stamps, free education, free medicare and freedom of worship in those European countries to which you run. You refuse to assimilate yourself into the general population as to contribute to true progress in your host society, investing your energy and time instead in scheming to take over their society by constant agitations aimed at imposing your religious views and way of life over theirs. When that fails, you unleash violence on the society, a move aimed at instilling fear in the hearts of your hosts in desperate bid to force them to comply with you. Always the victim, never the offender. Are you then surprised that over the ages and despite your longstanding experience, you have remained rooted to the bottom of the ladder of the underdeveloped? You cannot change because you are entangled in a tight web of a belief system that does not allow for any breath of fresh air.

  • Author’s gravatar

    eu must have done something good if the goat foquer erdogan is bleating so loud.