Turkey won’t change its anti-terrorism laws to win visa-free travel to the European Union for its citizens, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.
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Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu declared Thursday that he will not seek mandate at an extraordinary congress on May 22 when Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will choose a new party leader and prime minister.
Erdogan and Davutoglu have had a falling out with each other recently when the latter is seen not very enthusiastic about the change of Parliamentary system to an executive presidency, something Erdogan wholeheartedly wishes to secure.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected easing anti-terror legislation in exchange for visa-free travel for Turkish citizens in the EU.
Davutoglu announced on Thursday that he will step aside after he reportedly had a tense meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who hand picked him as his successor in August 2014.
“The EU at the moment is saying you will change your anti-terrorism law for visas”, Erdogan said at a speech in Istanbul on Friday, according to AP.
The EU wants Turkey to revise its terrorism laws, which carry a broad definition of “terrorism”, as a condition for allowing Turks to travel to Europe without visas on short stays. Erdogan, however, insists that with the country facing the twin threats of Kurdish rebels and Islamic State terrorism, the laws need to be expanded rather than curtailed.
Germany said it expects Turkey to uphold the deal, which was pushed by Chancellor Angela Merkel and which she hopes will shore up support for her conservatives ahead of a federal election next year. “Agree with whoever you can agree”, he said.
Erdogan’s government has already taken over critical media outlets, launched corruption investigations against political opponents and promoted a greater role for Islam in the country’s long-secular political affairs.
But then, no one could ever predict that this disagreement between the prime minister and the president will result in Davutoglu’s decision to leave his post in the party, that is, the post of chairman of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Davutoglu said, “I have no sense of failure or regrets in taking this decision”.
Turkey is in the process of overhauling its constitution.
Mr Erdogan also said that a proposed presidential system, giving greater powers to the president, should be put to a referendum “as soon as possible”.
Davutoglu “was the ideological architect of Ankara’s foreign policy under Erdogan, a foreign policy that has essentially left Turkey friendless in the region, with the exception of Hamas and Qatar”, the report said, adding “it is a foreign policy that placed at its center a distancing from Israel”.
We heard from European Union officials that most of the Western world would have less faith in Erdogan than they did in Davutoglu.
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During his goodbye speech, Davutoglu defended his time at the helm of the Turkish government and said he would remain in the party.
