“It is a scandal for a foreign minister to post such a tweet based on false news or speculation”, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in televised comments, adding that the Swedish ambassador to Ankara had been summoned to his ministry. Some Western governments are concerned this could affect stability in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member and suspect that President Tayyip Erdogan is using the purges as an excuse to quash dissent. But it is clear: “either we apply all the agreements at the same time or else put them all aside”, Cavusoglu told Bild newspaper on Sunday answering a question on whether Ankara would relax its border controls and allow any refugees travel to Europe if Brussels reneges on its promise to institute a visa-free regime for Turkish citizens, Sputnik reports.
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The issue of Turkey-EU visa liberalisation has been recently stalled amid disputes of Turkish anti-terrorism legislation.
Turkey has angrily rejected European Union criticism that the purges might violate rights norms Ankara must meet under the agreement in return for visa-free travel and accelerated negotiations for bloc membership.
Brussels wants Turkey to soften the anti-terrorism law, which Ankara says it can not change, given multiple security threats which include Islamic State militants in neighbouring Syria and Kurdish militants in its mainly Kurdish southeast.
Since the coup, more than 35,000 people have been detained, of whom 17,000 have been placed under formal arrest, and tens of thousands more suspended.
The dispute is the latest in several spats highlighting rising tensions between Turkey and European Union states in the wake of the botched Jul 15 coup followed by a relentless crackdown that angered Europe.
Turkey’s foreign minister says Ankara needs defense cooperation with countries outside North Atlantic Treaty Organisation because some Western partners are unwilling to sell his nation equipment or exchange information.
Ankara also summoned the Austrian charge d’affaires at the weekend in protest over a news ticker at Vienna airport about the age of consent controversy.
In the Bild interview Cavusoglu said Europe was acting as if Turkey had already introduced the death penalty.
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“Turkey allows sex with children under the age of 15”, read a headline on an electronic news ticker at the airport, images circulated on social media showed. A ministry statement accused Austrian officials of encouraging news reports that “besmear” Turkey. Austrian officials have urged an end to Turkey’s European Union membership talks, while Turkey has called Austria the “capital of radical racism”.
