Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sunday that Europe’s “masquerade ball’ is over as several European countries are now openly in field against Turkey by blocking Turkish ministers’ referendum campaigns and supporting terrorist groups.
“What has been happening in Europe lately shows that the struggle against my country and against our struggle has passed to a new stage. Those who tried to come at us with their men, with the terrorists that they support and gave guns to, with the spies they bought with a dollar, are now in the field. My brothers and sisters, the masquerade ball is over,” Erdoğan said in a rally in İstanbul on Sunday.
Slamming countries such as Germany and the Netherlands for banning Turkish ministers from conducting constitutional amendment campaigns, Erdoğan added “They set aside diplomacy. They do not have the urge to hide their intentions and cannot hide the discomfort they feel from Turkey, which is growing stronger.”
Erdoğan also accused European countries of supporting Turkey’s opposition groups’ referendum campaigns in Europe against the amendment package that will expand his powers enormously and switch Turkey into an executive presidency.
“They are overtly conducting a ‘no’ campaign through the newspaper headlines that they publish in Turkish,” he said.
Tensions strained after several Turkish ministers’ rallies in Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Sweden were canceled by local authorities last week and Erdoğan accused European countries of adopting Nazi practices. (turkishminute.com) March 19, 2017
