Speaking at a rally in Antalya on Thursday, Cavusoglu said religious wars will soon break out in Europe, Reuters reported. Late Wednesday he warned the EU that he would suspend a refugee agreement to house migrants heading for Europe in his country.
The foreign minister spoke about the outcome of the parliamentary elections in the Netherlands. He made no distinction between Geert Wilders and Mark Rutte who won a majority of the votes, despite Wilders campaigning for the closure of mosques and banning of the Koran.
Dutch politicians are taking the continent “to a cliff” he said. Cavusoglu warned that Wilders’ beliefs are shared by most across the Netherlands. “There is no difference between the mindsets of Geert Wilders and social democrats in the Netherlands. They all have the same mindset…that mindset is taking Europe to the cliff. Soon wars of religion may and will start in Europe,” Cavusoglu said, according to Reuters.
On Wednesday he suggested that Turkey would soon be flooding Europe with new migrants. “We may cancel the readmission agreement. The EU has been wasting our time on the visa liberalisation issue. We are not applying the readmission agreement at the moment, and we are evaluating the refugee deal,” Cavusoglu during an interview with 24 TV.
Last year Brussels and Ankara struck a deal that would allow for irregular migrants in Greece to be returned to Turkey. Before closing off the so-called Balkan route in early 2016, significant numbers of migrants arriving to the bloc departed from Turkey’s Aegean coast.
But relations between the EU and Turkey have soured after Germany and the Netherlands stopped Turkish politicians, including Cavusoglu, from campaigning for a referendum slated for April that could expand the Constitution to grant Erdogan more power.
Erdogan said in a recent televised speech Europe will soon “drown in its own fears” of Muslims and migrants. “Turkophobia is mounting. Islamophobia is mounting. They are even scared of migrants who take shelter there.”
Council of ministers president Donald Tusk and European Commission chairman Jean-Claude Juncker both made statements supporting the Netherlands in its diplomatic row with Turkey on Wednesday, Dutch media reported.
Turkey’s withdrawal of some NATO cooperation with partner countries is however only aimed at Austria, a spokeswoman for Ankara’s mission to the military alliance said on Thursday.
But NATO officials told Reuters on Wednesday that Turkey’s blocking of 2017 projects – mostly military training ones – has not only affected Austria but also other countries. Austria is not a NATO member, but has a partnership with the Atlantic organisation.
Austrian Defence Ministry spokesman Stefan Hirsch confirmed to AFP that the “Turkish blockade of Austria’s partner programmes with NATO began several months ago”.
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