Turkish FM Çavuşoğlu says US will learn how to talk to Turkey

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Saturday said the US has to learn how to talk to Turkey, underlining that old habits must be changed.

“A congressman called our ambassador to Washington [Serdar Kılıç] and said, ‘Who are you that you dare to [stop issuing] visas for American citizens.’ Our ambassador said, ‘You should read history to understand it.’ ‘Well done!’ I told my ambassador. I used to see them doing something and we stayed silent. They talked and we just swallowed. That is finished,” said Çavuşoğlu during a party meeting in Antalya province.

“I am trying to say this: In order to have functioning relations with Turkey, you have to learn how to treat Turkey. You have to forget old habits,” added Çavuşoğlu.

On Oct. 8, the US and Turkey halted non-immigrant visa services in their respective missions after Metin Topuz, a staff member at the US Consulate General in İstanbul, was arrested on Oct. 4 on espionage charges and alleged links to some leading members of the faith-based Gülen movement.

Minutes after the United States resumed processing visas at its missions in Turkey on a “limited” basis on Nov. 6, Turkey announced the resumption of visa issuance at its missions in the US in what could signal a tentative improvement in the ongoing diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Yiğit Bulut, a chief advisor to Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said on public TV that Turkey has no future with the West and that it instead must work with Russia and China.

“I do not believe that Turkey has a future with the West. I am speaking out. I said it clearly after the NATO incident [a recent enemy chart scandal during a NATO military drill in Norway]. I do not believe they have a positive vision of Turkey. As Mr. President [Erdoğan] said, ‘I don’t believe they have good dreams about Turkey’,” Bulut said during “Deep Analysis,” aired recently on state-run TRT.

“While the world has been sliding towards Asia, I think Turkey should make new openings with Russia, China, Africa and the Middle East. All of Turkey should understand it now.”

In August Bulut said the European Union was sick and struck by a plague and that Turkey must part ways with it to avoid catching the plague.

Bulut in April threatened the EU, warning it to refrain any negative move against Turkey or Erdoğan, saying, “You will be praying for every second you breathe!”

Reiterating his theory that the EU will collapse in an article published in the pro-Erdoğan Star daily, Bulut said: “Turkey’s EU membership is another topic under debate. The end of this lie is also a matter of time…”

In February, speaking on public broadcaster TRT, Bulut claimed that Turkey has developed missiles that have the capability of striking any country within the EU.

“If even a single hair of Erdoğan is harmed, nobody in any region will be able to enjoy even a breakfast,” Bulut said in March in heavily nationalist remarks.

Bulut, who has a secular background, kept claiming that the ummah and the nation have become stronger again under Erdoğan’s leadership. (SCF with turkishminute.com)

 

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