Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today voting ‘yes’ in next month’s referendum on expanding his powers was the best response to a ‘fascist and cruel’ Europe.
He told a rally in the capital, Ankara: ‘This Europe, like before World War II, is a racist, fascist, cruel Europe…An anti-Islam and anti-Turkish Europe.’
‘Give such a response, that those watching us on the screen, those watching us abroad, our citizens, all of Europe, all of the world can hear this,’ he told a crowd of supporters, who cheered loudly.
A referendum on April 16 will decide whether to approve constitutional changes which would abolish the post of prime minister, transfer greater powers to the President and allow the 63-year-old to stay in power until 2029.
The Turkish government says the changes are necessary for stability but critics fear it will lead to one-man rule.
Relations have become strained with the Netherlands and Germany blocking Turkish ministers from campaigning for the votes of Turkish immigrants who live in the European Union.
On Sunday Erdogan described Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel of using ‘Nazi measures’, deeply angering the government of a country which saw it as a serious slur.
Yesterday the Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus defended the ruling AKP’s rhetoric and said they were trying to prevent Europe from ‘falling into the trap of fascism’.
Erdogan today hit out after Merkel called for Deniz Yucel, a dual Turkish-German national to be freed from jail in Turkey.
Yucel, the Turkey correspondent of the German newspaper Die Welt, is in jail awaiting trial on terror charges.
Erdogan said Merkel had asked, when she visited last month, for Yucel to be allowed to leave Turkey but he told his supporters: ‘Our judiciary is independent, the decision will be given by the judiciary.’
As it cranks up the rhetoric to appeal to Turkish voters, the chances of Turkey being admitted into the EU become even less likely than before.
But Erdogan warned: ‘The European Union process, the readmission agreement, this and that, from now on, you can’t threaten us with these anymore.’
EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn told Germany’s Bild newspaper Turkish membership was becoming ‘more and more unrealistic’ in the wake of Erdogan’s belligerent style and contempt for human rights.
In the wake of July’s failed coup against Erdogan thousands of civil servants, teachers and lecturers were sacked and hundreds of soldiers were thrown in jail accused of supporting exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Erdogan has also hinted about resurrecting the death penalty.
Mr Hahn said: ‘With regard to the strict accession criteria, Turkey has been moving further and further away from the EU for some time.’
He added: ‘If it doesn’t change course quickly, membership will indeed become more and more unrealistic.’
Turkey has been in EU membership talks since 2005 but European leaders increasingly see Erdogan as a dictator who does not respect democracy, the rule of law or secular principles.
In a speech broadcast on television at the weekend Erdogan said: ‘When we call them Nazis they (Europe) get uncomfortable. They rally together in solidarity. Especially Merkel.
‘But you are right now employing Nazi measures,’ Erdogan said, referring to Merkel.
‘Against who? My Turkish brother citizens in Germany and brother ministers,’ he added, in a reference to Turkish politicians who had planned to hold campaign rallies among Turkish nationals in Germany in the run-up to the referendum on constitutional changes.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Erdogan had gone too far and described his comments as ‘shocking’.
Mr Gabriel told the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper: ‘We are tolerant but we’re not stupid. That’s why I have let my Turkish counterpart know very clearly that a boundary has been crossed here.’
Erdogan and the Turkish press have reacted furiously, with the nationalist daily Gunes depicting Merkel on its front page in Nazi uniform with a Hitler-style moustache.
The newspaper described her as ‘Frau Hitler’ and called her an ‘ugly aunt’.
Julia Klöckner, the vice-president of Merkel’s CDU party, reacted angrily to Erdogan’s comments.
She said: ‘Has Mr Erdogan lost his mind?’ and urged the EU to freeze ‘financial aid amounting to billions of euros’ which has been promised to Turkey as part of a deal to tackle the migration crisis.
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