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GreekReporter.comEuropeErdogan Tells EU To Look At Greece

Erdogan Tells EU To Look At Greece

AB6E63008F8D4A356A2108E562D36CB6The European Commission has no right to criticize Turkey about the ongoing riots in Istanbul and across the country, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, unleashing a harsh attack on leaders of the bloc he wants his country to join.

Responding to the European Union’s recommendations concerning the excessive use of violence by the police during the suppression of the anti-government demonstrations, Erdogan asked of the European Parliament “how dares” it to criticize Turkey, suggesting it should take care of debt-crushed Greece instead.

Erdogan also mentioned the violent incidents that took place in Greece during the anti-memorandum protests saying that the EU should first check these categories.

“The European Parliament’s decisions are ‘non-binding’ for Turkey, which is not a member of the European Union,” he said, speaking during a meeting of his  Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Erdogan made a personal attack on the European Commissioner for Enlargement Štefan Füle, with whom he was met a few days ago in Istanbul.

Erdogan said he was irritated because after their 30-minute meeting, on the sidelines of the conference on EU-Turkey relations, Füle chose to use Twitter to declare he was  “disappointed by the lost opportunity of the conference in Istanbul to communicate with those who call for respect”.

The Turkish leader also laced into the leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, who had called him and urged him to stop sending police against protesters angry that the main square of Istanbul is being uprooted of trees and turned into a shopping mall, depriving the  city of one of its last green spaces.

At the same time, Erdogan issued “final warning” to protesters, giving them a 24-hour ultimatum to leave from Taksim Square, because, he said, “Our patience is at an end. I am making my warning for the last time. I say to the mothers and fathers please take your children in hand and bring them out. We cannot wait any more because Gezi Park does not belong to the occupants, but to the people,” he added.

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