November 09, 2016•Update: November 09, 2016
By Mehmet Tosun and Enes Duran
ANKARA
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag on Wednesday criticized foreign diplomats who attended a meeting of opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmakers.
Speaking at Anadolu Agency’s Editors’ Desk, the minister condemned the envoys for supporting the HDP by attending Tuesday’s meeting at the parliament in Ankara while their governments failed to show support for Turkey’s battle against terrorism.
Bozdag said the envoys who attended the first meeting of HDP deputies since 13 lawmakers, including the party’s two co-leaders, were arrested on terrorism-related charges had “not even released a statement that says they stand with Turkey against terrorism.”
Referring to the July 15 coup attempt -- said to have been orchestrated by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) -- he added: “When the terror organization opened fire to our soldiers and police officers, when they threw bombs at us these envoys went to the southeastern provinces to support terrorists.”
Turkey has accused the HDP of links to the PKK terrorist organization, which has launched attacks primarily in the country’s southeast since it returned to violence in July last year.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu also attacked representatives from the EU, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg, Greece, Germany, Spain and Finland who attended the meeting.
“We do not accept this picture,” he said at a ceremony at the Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Academy in Ankara. “We do not accept that some European countries’ representatives support an understanding that is nested within a terrorist organization.”
Reflecting on the annual EU accession progress report due to be released later Wednesday, Bozdag said: “The European Union, for a long time, has been leaning towards issues that are against Turkey’s policies. Don’t you think that good stuff also happens in Turkey? They do not include the good things in their reports.”
Previous reports have included negative comments on the independence of the Turkish judiciary and the arrest of HDP deputies, who face trial after their parliamentary immunity was lifted in June, has intensified the nature of comments from European capitals.
However, Bozdag said: “No party, EU member country or any others can order or suggest to the Turkish judiciary what to do.”
