PM accuses EU of 'dirty campaign' against Turkey

Dec 21, 2014

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Sunday accused the European Union of starting a "dirty campaign" against Turkey by criticising the arrests of opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.


ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Sunday accused the European Union of starting a "dirty campaign" against Turkey by criticising the arrests of opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey's already stalled membership bid to join the EU has suffered a further blow amid the row with the 28-nation bloc over last weekend's raids on journalists, scriptwriters and police.

Speaking at a congress of his ruling party in Ankara, Davutoglu lashed out at the EU for rushing to issue a statement criticising the raids last Sunday.

"The EU even made its statement on a holiday. With this statement, they started a dirty campaign concerning our government," he told the congress.

"With this dirty campaign, they are waging a defamation campaign against our government and our country," he added in televised remarks.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn had issued an unusually harsh statement condemning the raids as "incompatible with the freedom of media".

The row has been particularly bitter as the pair were only in Turkey a week before for talks seeking to revive its membership bid.

Davutoglu reaffirmed his insistence that the arrests were not linked to freedom of the press in any way. Erdogan has already told the EU to "mind their own business" over the controversy.

Speaking at a separate event in the southern city of Antalya, Turkish EU Minister Volkan Bozkir said Ankara was not troubled by the prospect of the EU rejecting Turkey.

"If the EU allows itself the luxury of not making Turkey a member, if it makes this wrong decision, then Turkey will not care too much," he said, quoted by the Anatolia news agency.

He said Turkey categorically rejected having a "student-teacher" relationship with the European Union.

Thirty people were arrested in the raids last Sunday against those deemed to have links to Erdogan's arch foe, US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Most have now been released but a court on Friday remanded in custody on terrorism charges the head of the pro-Gulen Samanyolu TV and three former police chiefs. It also issued an arrest warrant for Gulen himself.

Erdogan has blamed Gulen for spreading corruption allegations last year that rocked his government and touched his inner circle, but that the Turkish strongman vehemently denied.

Davutoglu said the government would "break the arm" of anyone implicated in corruption.

"We are determined to break the arm of anyone who approaches our national treasures, our resources, with the aim of corruption, even if it is our brother," he said.

He said the government would also move against anyone who "attacks the national will" with false claims of corruption.

AFP

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