News / Turkey

Erdogan accuses EU of ‘sidelining democracy’ in terror fight

Saturday, 07 May 2016 5:40 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 07 May 2016 5:38 PM ]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he speaks during a meeting with local village and town leaders at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, on May 4, 2016. © AFP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has once again criticized the European Union for pressing his country to change terror laws, saying the EU is “sidelining democracy” in its own anti-terror campaign.

“Those who criticize us are reduced to sidelining democracy and freedoms when bombs started to explode on their soil,” Erdogan said in a speech in the southeastern city of Malatya on Saturday.

Last week, the European Union asked member states to exempt Turkish nationals from visa in return for Turkey curbing refugees' flow to Europe, under a deal sealed between the bloc and Ankara in March. Turkey, however, said it still had to change some laws first, including its terrorism laws which critics say are too broad and impinge on basic rights.

Under the EU-Turkey controversial deal, Ankara agreed to take back all the asylum seekers and refugees, who had used its territory to illegally reach the EU shores in return for a number of commitments from the EU, including a financial aid, visa liberalization and progress in its EU membership negotiations.

“I am going to talk plainly: on the question of visas, let those who call on Turkey to modify its anti-terrorism law start by removing tents set up by the terrorists at the doors of the European Parliament,” Erdogan added.

He made the remarks in an apparent reference to tents set up by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Brussels outside an EU-Turkey summit in March.

In a televised speech on Friday, Erdogan rejected EU’s demand to change the country’s terror laws, saying Turkey would not change its panoply of anti-terror laws.

“They say 'I am going to abolish visas and this is the condition.' I'm sorry, we're going our way, you go yours. Agree with whoever you can agree,” he said.

“When Turkey is under attack from terrorist organizations and the powers that support them directly, or indirectly, the EU is telling us to change the law on terrorism,” he continued.

Turkey has been asking the 28-nation bloc to allow its 79 million citizens to enter the bloc’s passport-free Schengen zone without a visa, a call that has faced 72 conditions, which are listed in an EU framework titled the Roadmap Towards a Visa Free Regime with Turkey.

Erdogan has previously warned Brussels that Ankara would stop fulfilling its side of the deal if the EU's promises are not kept.

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