08 November 2016•Update: 08 November 2016
ANKARA
Turkey condemned Luxembourg's Foreign Minister on Monday after he compared the Turkish government to Nazi Germany.
“We condemn regretfully the voices that Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, which is one of the countries that support terrorism in Europe, expressed in the interview with a German radio channel Deutschlandfunk,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu told the reporters in Ankara.
“These unfortunate statements show how the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg, which is controversial how much it contributes to the fight against terrorism on a global scale, is incapable of assessing the scale and character of the terrorist threat facing Turkey.”
Asselborn criticized Ankara’s efforts to purge Turkey of state personnel linked to the overthrow attempt and accused the government of using methods reminiscent of those employed by the Nazis.
“To put it bluntly, these are methods that were used during the Nazi era and that's a really, really bad development ... that the European Union simply cannot accept,” Asselborn told German radio.
He also suggested that Turkey's economic ties with the European Union could be halted. “At a certain point in time, we won't have any choice but to apply [sanctions] to counteract the unbearable human rights situation,” he added.
Led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, the Fetullah Terrorist Organization is accused of orchestrating the July 15 coup plot as well as being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the Turkish state through the infiltration of institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
The July 15 abortive coup left 246 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
Reporting by Zuhal Demirci, Writing by Ilker Girit
