Turkey may abandon readmission deal, deputy PM warns EU

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON

Turkey will abandon the readmission agreement on refugees with the EU if the bloc does not fulfill the necessities of the visa liberalization deal, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Friday.

In an interview with Al Jazeera during his visit to London Friday, Kurtulmus said the latest move by the European parliament, which advised the union to halt accession talks with Turkey through its non-binding resolution Thursday, exposed double standards towards Turkey.

“It [readmission agreement] is about to end if the European Union does not say, 'we accept the visa liberalization process for Turkish citizens'... ,” he said.

Reiterating Turkey’s reaction to the European Parliament’s move, Kurtulmus said: “This is not a decision that would bear political results in terms of European law but it is a decision showing Europe is in an almost hostile stance. Therefore, we accept it as null and void.”

The deputy premier said the EU did not consider halting its relations with France when the country had declared a state of emergency following terror attacks there.

“Turkey is a country that lost hundreds of citizens in nine suicide bombings since July 2015. It also faced a coup attempt on July 15, 2016. We did not declare a state of emergency even when there were terror attacks.

“This state of emergency was put in effect in order to fully block the coup attempt and to erase its effects from Turkish state,” he said.

He added that he did not think Europe’s doors had been closed for Turkey.

About the terrorist organizations Daesh and PKK, as well as Syria, he said: “Both organizations are extremely against the interest of Turkish people, Turkish nation. So that’s why we intend to cure this region, to stop the activities of major terrorist organizations…,” he said.

“We support Free Syrian Army, and their activities. We provide [support to] them with some tanks. We will continue to reach our final destination,” he added.

Earlier, Kurtulmus said Turkey is “an island of stability” during a program at the Chatham House, a think tank on international affairs, in London.

He said the current world political and economic order had been challenged, but the order had lost its ability to solve major global problems.

The July 15 defeated coup left 248 martyred, 2,193 others wounded. Led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, FETO is accused of orchestrating Turkey’s July 15 coup plot as well as being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.