Erdoğan Says EU Cannot Teach Turkey Democracy

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has continued to lambaste the European Union for its criticism of a government-orchestrated police operation against members of the press, saying Turkey is in a position to teach the EU a lesson in democracy.

“Take the trouble of coming here [to Turkey] so that Turkey teaches you [the EU] a lesson in democracy,” Erdoğan said on Wednesday, accusing the EU of acting like a teacher towards Turkey. “Those who try to offer advice to us should understand that Turkey is no longer the old [Turkey],” Erdoğan said during a rally in Konya.

No matter what Europe does to protest the recently launched police operation, which the president has maintained was conducted on solid legal grounds, Erdoğan said Turkey would chart its own course.

"We don't care whether the EU allows [us into the EU]," Erdoğan defiantly said, adding that Turkey is not a slave of Europe.

Erdoğan, who stressed that the EU cannot treat Turkey like a scapegoat, said the EU should first try to see its own faults before criticizing Turkey. “Those who have turned a blind eye to Syria and turned their backs to the massacre in Palestine cannot preach to us about freedoms and democracy,” Erdoğan said.

Criticizing the EU for offering advice but not money for the 1.6 million refugees hosted by Turkey, Erdoğan noted that Turkey has so far spent $5 billion on refugees from Syria and Iraq, while the financial aid Turkey received from abroad for refugees amounts to no more than $200 million.

At the beginning of the week, Erdoğan also snapped at the EU telling it to mind its own business upon the union's criticism for the police operation targeting journalists.

"They cry for press freedom, but [the raids] have nothing to do with that. ... We have no concern about what the EU might say. Whether the EU accepts us as members or not, we have no such concern. Please keep your insights to yourself," Erdoğan said in a speech on Monday.

In a joint statement released on Sunday, Federica Mogherini, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, and Johannes Hahn, commissioner for European neighborhood policy and enlargement negotiations, said the crackdown on Zaman and other media outlets is an "unacceptable attack" against the freedom of the press. “This operation denies the European values and standards Turkey aspires to be part of and which are the core of reinforced relations,” the statement said.

“The EU should not [think it has the right] to intervene in the acts taken by the police and judiciary against the entities that jeopardize our national security. It should mind its own business,” Erdoğan said, defending the crackdown as part of a necessary response to "dirty operations" by his political enemies.

Erdoğan also said that they “will not allow prosecutors and police officers to be put under pressure.”

In his speech in Konya, Erdoğan also accused the EU of trying to put Turkey off course in its path to accession to the union. Turkey presented its bid for EU accession in 1987.(Cihan/Today's Zaman)

SHOLTIST
TURKEY, KONYA, 17 DEC 2014

Erdoğan at stage paying speech
VAR of Erdoğan's remarks
VAR of tha crowd at the rally site

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