Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out Tuesday at what he said was pressure from European Union leaders for his nation to ease its anti-terrorism laws, claiming that Europe — unlike Turkey — is provides refuge for groups that support terrorists.
“European countries continue to be safe havens for the political extensions of terrorist groups,” Mr. Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara. “When this is the case, it’s a piece of black comedy that the EU criticizes our country over the definition of terrorism.”
His accusations marked the latest in an escalating clash over the EU’s demand that Turkey pass anti-terrorism laws more in line with the bloc’s own standards under a landmark immigration agreement between the two.
The bloc’s member states have said they’ll grant Turks visa-free travel, a longtime policy goal for Mr. Erdogan, in exchange for a ramped-up effort by Ankara to halt the flow of Syrian war refugees heading for Europe, but only if Turkey reforms its laws, which rights groups say are often used to silence political dissent.
But the prospect for any agreement has come increasingly into question since Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who was negotiating the deal with EU leaders in March, suddenly resigned from his post last week — a development that many saw as a move by Mr. Erdogan to cement his power and eliminate a rival.
Analysts have long raised concerns that the Turkish president and his ruling Justice and Development Party have been using any tool they can, including the nation’s anti-terrorism laws, to detain journalists, academics and ethnic Kurds critical of Mr. Erdogan’s long rule.
Ankara insists the laws are essential as it battles Kurdish separatist movements at home and the threat from Islamic State in neighboring Syria and Iraq.
Reuters reported Tuesday that Mr. Erdogan was still seething over the presence of protesters sympathetic to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) near a March EU-Turkey summit in Brussels, Belgium, which hosts the EU’s headquarters.
The PKK has been engaged in a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state, and Mr. Erdogan has claimed that the willingness of EU leaders to allow the group to openly protest in Brussels showed the bloc’s “two-faced” behavior toward Turkey.
A car bomb on Tuesday struck a police vehicle that was carrying officers escorting seven recently detained Kurdish militants in the mainly-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, killing three people and wounding 45 others, officials said.
No group had claimed responsibility for the attack in Diyarbakir’s Baglar neighborhood, but the state-run Anadolu Agency said it was carried out by the PKK as the bus was passing by.
Mr. Erdogan has also openly accused Belgium of being soft on terrorism and said EU authorities exposed themselves as “incapable” last year when they failed to take into custody a high-level suspected terrorist that Turkey had deported to the Netherlands.
The suspect, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, was later found to be among the Islamic State suicide bombers responsible for explosions that rocked Brussels’ international airport and subway system in March, killing 35 people and injuring scores of others.
• This article was based in part on wire service reports.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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