BELGIUM: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan dismisses EU criticism over recent crackdown on the judiciary and police

Record ID: 217696

  • Title: BELGIUM: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan dismisses EU criticism over recent crackdown on the judiciary and police
  • Date: 21st January 2014
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (JANUARY 21, 2014) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS HOLDING FLAGS AND BANNER, READING (French): "Only the revolution can clean up this dirt"" PROTESTER CHANTING PROTESTERS HOLDING SIGNS, CHANTING PROTESTER HOLDING BANNER (SOUNDBITE) (French) HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST, BINGOL FADIM, SAYING: "We are demonstrating against Tayyip Erdogan, because we are against everything
  • Embargoed: 5th February 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Economic News,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3IABSPE4CTKHV9LL0PJ20OBN3
  • Story Text: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan defended his crackdown on the judiciary and police on Tuesday (January 21) in the face of a reprimand from European Union leaders who told him Turkey must respect democratic norms to qualify to join the EU.
    Erdogan made his first trip to Brussels in five years at a time when relations with the EU have been strained by his purge of hundreds of police and moves to impose tighter control on the courts in response to a corruption inquiry that has rocked his government.
    European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso pointedly reminded Erdogan at a joint news conference that respect for rule of law and independence of the judiciary were fundamental principles of democracy and vital conditions for membership of the 28-nation EU, which Turkey has long sought to join.
    "We are concerned, as many others in the European Union, about recent events in Turkey. We have followed these events closely and I have today relayed European concerns to Prime Minister Erdogan as an honest friend and partner, I made the point about what exactly is happening today in Turkey," Barroso told a news conference.
    Barroso said Erdogan had reassured him and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy that he intended to fully respect the rule of law and judicial independence and Barroso said he was confident Turkey would swiftly address the EU's concerns.
    "The judiciary should not go beyond its defined missions and mandate. This is what we are doing in Turkey, everything else that you hear is misinformation and disinformation. There are people with interests in that process that can also start false remarks or try to make Turkey appear differently," Erdogan said.
    Erdogan has cast a huge graft inquiry, which has led to the resignation of three ministers and detention of businessmen close to the government, as an attempt by a U.S.-based cleric with influence in the police and judiciary to unseat him.
    A draft bill from Erdogan's ruling AK Party which would give government greater control over the appointment of judges and prosecutors, has raised particular alarm in Brussels.
    Turkey's long-stalled drive to join the EU gained some fresh momentum at the end of last year when Ankara and Brussels opened talks on a new policy area of membership negotiations.
    But EU concerns over the crackdown in Turkey risk halting that new momentum.
    Ankara began negotiations to join the EU in 2005, 18 years after applying. But a series of political obstacles, notably over the divided island of Cyprus, and resistance to Turkish membership in Germany and France, have slowed progress.
    During the news conference Erdogan congratulated the central bank for what he said was an "appropriate" decision to leave interest rates on hold, despite market pressure for a rate hike to combat a tumbling lira.
    "The Central Bank of Turkey is an independent entity, as you know, it doesn't report to me or to any of my ministers. I studied economy and I I'm Turkey's prime minister and I see the decision that the central bank has taken today as appropriate and I congratulate them," Erdogan, who has been a vocal advocate of low rates, told reporters.
    Erdogan also reacted to the latest photographic report of atrocities attributed to Syrian President Bashar al Assad on the eve of Geneva-2 peace talks in Switzerland aimed at finding a political transition to the conflict.
    "If you remain inactive despite those photographs then that would be very disappointing for everyone because if we don't move forward after that, what are you going to act on? Well, this is a basic question and I'd like to go beyond Geneva-2 and I believe that the U.N. has to handle this differently, the U.N. Security Council should handle this in a more progressive manner and no longer ask us what kind of steps they should take," Erdogan said.
    A military police photographer defected and provided evidence showing the systematic killing of 11,000 detainees, the Guardian newspaper reported, citing three lawyers who had examined the files.
    The photographs will ratchet up the pressure on Assad, who the United States and its Western allies say has committed war crimes against his own people. Assad denies war crimes and says he is fighting 'terrorists'.
    As Erdogan was meeting the EU politicians, some one hundred anti-Erdogan demonstrators took to Brussels' Luxembourg Square outside the European Parliament to protest against Erdogan's policy.
    Bingol Fadim, a human rights activist and one of the protest leaders, said the recent corruption scandal shed light on the true face of Erdogan's government.
    "We are demonstrating against Tayyip Erdogan, because we are against everything that he imposes upon us. At the moment, we see him as a dictator. He steals the government. He's completely corrupt and he doesn't accept anything. He considers that everything he does is legal. He thinks he's the king, the pasha. That's it," she told Reuters Television.
    Erdogan has purged hundreds of police and sought tighter control of the courts since a corruption inquiry burst into the open last month, a scandal he has cast as an attempted "judicial coup" meant to undermine him ahead of elections.
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