Erdogan Accuses EU Of ‘Crusade’ Against Islam

Under the agreement, the bloc will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and reward it with money, visa liberalization and progress in its European Union membership negotiations.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said Europe is heading for “wars of religion” and Dutch politicians are taking the continent “to a cliff”.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Europe of starting a new battle between Islam and Christianity following a ruling permitting employers to ban headscarves.

The EU-Turkey refugee pact, which will mark its first anniversary tomorrow, has divided opinion within Europe, with critics saying it breaches human rights and supporters pointing to a 98 per cent drop in arrivals to Greece.

“We can stop (the deal) unilaterally …”

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having already accused European Union members Germany and the Netherlands of being fascists and Nazis, has extended his war of words to the entire bloc.

According to the Turkish official, “they all have the same mindset” and that mindset is propelling Europe towards “wars of religion” in the very near future.

Turkey’s diplomatic rift with European leaders deepened last week when Turkish diplomats were blocked from holding political rallies in Germany and the Netherlands. Germany and the Netherlands. The Turkish president accused Merkel this week of supporting terrorists in the anti-Erdogan Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

He said the dramatic statements and the recent fallout in relations with some European countries should be read as part of the efforts of Turkey’s government to win votes in the upcoming referendum on granting the President more powers. However, Mr Cavusoglu said in an interview with the HaberTurk broadcaster late on Thursday that there was “no reason” for Turkey to “move away from Europe”.

Analysts say Erdogan is happy to pick a fight with Europe in a drive for nationalist votes that could prove crucial in determining the outcome of what is expected to be a tight referendum. Claiming that Turkey had been subjected to multilayered games for many years, Soylu said FETÖ, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were trying to destroy love and fraternity.