No ‘drift’ in Turkey, says London envoy

LONDON

The entire Turkish nation is united in its ambition to preserve Turkey’s democracy following last month’s coup attempt, the country’s London ambassador has said.

Abdurrahman Bilgic told the Financial Times newspaper that due respect was being shown to fundamental rights and freedoms as work continued to eliminate the clandestine Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) from the state machinery.

He was responding to an editorial published in the newspaper last week entitled “A diplomatic dilemma in dealing with Turkey”.

In a letter published on Tuesday, Bilgic said had July’s coup attempt succeeded there would have been a “taxing civil war in Turkey that was ruled by an undemocratic regime not hesitating to undermine the foundations of the Republic and had suspended fundamental rights and freedoms once and for all.

“This would have happened when we were all struggling with common challenges such as the turmoil in the Middle East, the threat from various terrorist organizations and irregular migration.”

In this context Turkey’s call to extradite Fetullah Gulen from the United States could not go unheeded, he added.

Quoting the FT’s editorial, he continued: “There is currently no ‘drift’, ‘turmoil’ or ‘crackdown’ taking place in Turkey. The Turkey-EU migration deal is fully in effect.

“Yet, its future depends on the stance to be adopted by the EU. Given Turkey’s strong place and active role within the anti-Daesh coalition, claiming that Turkey is ‘an unreliable partner’ is unfair and also disrespectful for the lives lost in various terrorist attacks that were conducted by Daesh.”