ANKARA (AA) - Turkish Minister of EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis has stated that they were not not good at taking threats and ultimatums disguised as editorials from The Economist.
Bagis released a written statement in regards to the editorial and column published in The Economist about Turkey.
Emphasizing the tactlessness of The Economist, Bagis said, "The Economist did it again. A photoshop portrait, lots of hype, and a long list of demands… I wonder the last time this paper used that many modal verbs 'must' and 'should' in an article while trying to dictate Turkey and its democratically elected government,"
Stating that Turkish govenrment was only accountable to its citizens, Bagis said, "We are not good at taking threats and ultimatums disguised as editorials. Was this the newspaper that called the 2011 election for the opposition CHP Party? Let me remind the result of that election. AK Party 50% and CHP 25.9%. The Economist certainly has problems with its editorial wisdom, and needs to work harder to increase its circulation in Turkey.The paper is also trying to tarnish the democratically elected prime minister. I wonder if the Economist was this cheerful during the August 2011 Blackberry Riots?"
"Prime Minister Erdogan and our Justice and Development (AK) Party have won three consecutive general elections. Our electoral base is over 50% and thanks to this rioting, terror and its foreign propagandists, I expect our votes to reach over 60 percent," Bagis indicated.
Still, we are the government of the 100 percent, he added.
He also posed the question of "Where and when a mob can hijack a well-meaning environmentalist protest and turn it into a terror-fest? And which government would permit that?"
Bagis stated accusations against their government were baseless and the term authoritarian was a slander.
Touching on the recent alcohol legislation, he said, "The alcohol law is nothing more than a licensing regulation. You are welcome to compare the UK licensing laws with the Turkish law, and you will notice amazing similarities."
Also drawing attention to the cover photo of The Economist where Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was depicted as a Sultan, he said, "And if not plain pathetic and ignorant, The Economist's abuse of the Sultan portrait is a thinly veiled and outrageous threat. The base portrait of that photo belongs to Sultan Selim the Third. He was a reformist Sultan who had abolished the corrupt and unruly Yeniceri army. Selim was setting up a modern army, replacing the Yeniceri mobs. At some stage, the Yeniceri rebelled, rioted and with the help of some treacherous palace politicians, Sultan Selim was tragically assassinated. With that crude photo-job on Erdogan, is the Economist implying something?"
Bagis concluded the statement by wishing Sultan Selim to rest in peace and hoping that The Economist's choice of the portrait was simply the reflection of its usual ignorance about Turkey.
