Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday accused the West of “supporting terror” and standing by those who conspired in a failed coup attempt against him last month.
“Those who we imagined to being friends are standing by the coup plotters and by the terrorists,” he said in a televised speech from the presidential palace. “Unfortunately, the West is supporting terror and standing by the coup plotters,” AFP reported.
Erdoğan also denounced Germany’s judicial system, which refused to allow him to appear by videolink at a rally of his supporters in Cologne on Sunday.
“Bravo! The courts in Germany work very fast!” he said, ironically.
The address followed an interview with Italian broadcaster Rai News 24, broadcast Tuesday, in which Erdoğan took aim at the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, after she called for the Turkish government to respect the rule of law amid a crackdown on opponents in the wake of the July 15 coup attempt.
Erdoğan asked: “Does the West support democracy or the coup? When I hear these comments I think it is in favor of the coup.”
In his speech Tuesday, Erdoğan also alluded to possible foreign involvement in the plot: “This coup was not just an event planned from the inside. The actors inside acted out a scenario for a coup written from the outside.”
Erdoğan did not like that Federica Mogherini (pictured) did not visit Turkey after the failed coup | Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images
He told Rai the attempted “coup against democracy” had left 238 martyrs, “but so far, unfortunately, nobody came here to pay a visit.
“If the Italian parliament were bombed, what would happen? How would Mogherini, who is Italian, react? Would she say that it was right to bomb it? [Would she say] that she’s concerned by the trial that would follow?”
Italian media quoted a spokesperson from the European External Action Service who expressed “surprise” at Erdoğan’s comments, adding that Mogherini “has clearly condemned the attempted coup. She has expressed support for the legitimate democratic institutions in Turkey.”
There is a growing concern in Europe at Turkey’s response to the failed coup, including hints from Erdoğan and his prime minister that the death penalty could be reinstated to deal with the alleged plotters.
Pointing to the death penalty in the U.S., China and India and other countries, Erdoğan told Rai “only members of the EU have dropped it. Now in Turkey there’s a popular request: 57 percent of the Turks want it, according to the polls, and if parliament votes for it, nobody will be able to say anything.”
He also restated his view that the EU must grant Turks visa-free travel in the Schengen area or else “the acceptation of migrants in Turkey will stop.”
German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said his country and the EU “should under no circumstances be blackmailed” by Turkey over visa liberalization.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu issued a similar warning Sunday, saying Ankara would no longer back the EU-Turkey migration deal, designed to halt the flow of migrants to the bloc unless Brussels grants the visa waiver by October at the latest.
The European Commission is insisting Turkey meet 72 legal “benchmarks,” including respect for the rule of law and civil liberties before it offers visa-free travel.
EU politicians pushed back following Çavuşoğlu’s intervention.
On Monday, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said his country and the EU “should under no circumstances be blackmailed” by Turkey over visa liberalization.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the Rheinische Post newspaper Tuesday that the idea that Turkey could blackmail the EU was “absurd.”
In Austria, Chancellor Christian Kern told the Österreich daily Tuesday that “we should not allow ourselves to be intimidated in any way.”
Meanwhile, Manfred Weber, leader of the center-right European People’s Party bloc in the European Parliament, told German broadcaster ARD Monday that Ankara’s “ultimatum” had left it further away from visa liberalization than ever and that “Turkey needs the EU in the long term more than any other partner.”