Turkey 'surprised' by lack of post-coup EU visits

By Ayse Sarioglu

ANKARA

Turkey’s EU minister has described as “surprising” a lack of visits from senior European Union figures one week on from the July 15 attempted coup.

Speaking on Saturday at a news conference in Ankara, Omer Celik said: "We would expect officials of the European Union, European Parliament and European Council to visit Turkey to voice their support for the common democratic values we share by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Turkey."

However, Celik thanked all Turkey's allies for their messages of support.

"There is no doubt that the values in danger are the common values of all of us," Celik said, adding: "We have enough power to protect our own democracy."

Stressing that the quality of democracy in Turkey is no less than democracy in other countries, Celik said the aim of the current state of emergency is "to protect democracy, to protect the state of law, to protect the rights and liberties of our citizens and to protect peace in our country".

* Anadolu Agency correspondent Sibel Ugurlu contributed to the report from Ankara.