Erdogan vows to bring back capital punishment
Ankara/Istanbul, July 16: A defiant President Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday stepped up his attack on the European Union saying Turkey had to go its own way and vowing to bring back the death penalty if parliament passes it.
Mr Erdogan, who was at the opening ceremony for a memorial dedicated to the roughly 250 people who died during last year’s failed coup, accused Brussels of “messing about” with Turkey’s decades-long bid to join the bloc.
The speech, in front of the presidential palace in Ankara in the early hours of Sunday, wound up a marathon session of public appearances by Erdogan in both the capital and Istanbul to mark the anniversary of last year’s failed coup.
“The stance of the European Union is clear to see... 54 years have passed and they are still messing us about,” he said, citing what he said was Brussels’ failure to keep promises on everything from a visa deal to aid for Syrian migrants.
“We will sort things out for ourselves, there’s no other option.”
Ties with Europe were strained after the coup, given the West’s alarm about the scale of the government crackdown that followed. Addressing a crowd of hundreds of thousands, Mr Erdogan promised violent retribution against Turkey’s enemies, including FETO — his term for Gulen’s network — and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party .
He also said that alleged members of Mr Gulen’s network would be forced to wear jumpsuits like those worn by prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, after one detainee showed up to a court hearing wearing a T-shirt that said “Hero”.
Meanwhile, European Commission chief JeanClaude Juncker urged Turkey to uphold democratic values if it hopes to join the European Union, after a year of purges following a coup bid. “Whoever wants to join the European Union is joining a union of values,” Mr Juncker wrote in an op-ed for German Bild Sonntag. — Agencies