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In a speech given to supporters in the western Turkish city of Sakarya, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan invoked the medieval religious wars between Christian Europeand the Islamic Middle Eastin the context ofpresent-day escalating tensions between the European Union and Turkey.

"My dear brothers, a battle has started between the cross and the half moon. There can be no other explanation," Erdogansaid on Thursday.

The Turkish presidentalso stated the European Court of Justice's (ECJ) Tuesday ruling, whichpermits companies to ban the Islamic headscarf as part of policies barring religious symbols inthe workplace, was the start of a "crusade" by Europe.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly accused Dutch and German politicians of acting like "Nazis" and claiming the "spirit of fascism" is rampant in Europe. He later invoked medieval religious wars in the context of escalating tensions between the EU and Turkey. "My dear brothers, a battle has started between the cross and the half moon. There can be no other explanation," Erdogan said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, meanwhile, was not to be outdown by his boss. Speaking on Thursday, Cavusoglu said Europe was losing its unity. "Religious wars will soon begin inEurope... If things continue as they are, then it will be so." "You will learn how to behave towards us. If you do not learn, we will teach you."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the election victory for the center-right prime minister Mark Rutte in divisive Dutch elections. "I was very happy that a high turnout led to a very pro-European result, a clear signal," she said. "I don't intend to participate in this race to trade provocations." Referring to Erdogan's attacks, she added: "The insults need to stop."

Meanwhile, Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Ankara was playing the victim with its attacks on its NATO allies to galvanize support ahead of its referendum in April. Turkish politicians had "no business" campaigning in Germany, he said. France and Germany plan to establish a European center to counter extremist propaganda and deradicalize young people, he also revealed this week.

After a week of heightened tensions between Turkey and the Netherlands, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte emerged victorious in a bruising battle with Geert Wilders. The populist's invective against all things Muslim and anything from the EU failed to earn him the breakthrough that many had come to count on as a given.

French President Francois Hollande congratulated Rutte for his election success and his "victory against extremism." He said that "the values of openness, respect for others, and a faith in Europe's future are the only true response to the nationalist impulses and isolationism that are shaking the world." In a joint statement with Angela Merkel, he denounced Erdogan's remarks as "unacceptable."

After boosts in Britain and the United States over the past year and Wednesday's setback in the Netherlands, populism now heads to France for its next test of political viability. Now it is for Marine Le Pen of the National Front to carry the torch in presidential elections starting next month.

Meanwhile, Germany's far-right kept on message. "I can not hide the fact that we wanted Wilders to have had a better result," the leader of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) Frauke Petry said. "Wilders addressed the right issues in the election campaign, but he might not always have had the right tone. Citizens want a clear message, but they are afraid of a hard tone," Petry said.

Konstantin Kosachev, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Russian parliament, wrote that Europe had been "weakened" by the elections in the Netherlands. "French Presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron and Merkel may breathe for the time being after the victory of Rutte, but the fear among the established European elites facing the challenges of the 21st century remains palpable," he wrote.

Erdogan has recently upped his antagonistic rhetoric towards Europe after Germany and the Netherlands both canceled campaign appearances by Turkish politicians. The events were intended to drum up support for an April 16 referendum that, if approved, would vastly expandErdogan's presidentialpowers.

Erdogan has repeatedly compared the behavior of German and Dutch politicians to that of "Nazis" and accused Europe of hosting the "spirit of fascism."

"Europe is swiftly rolling back to the days before World War II," he said in his speech in Sakarya.

Post-election attacks on the Netherlands

Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also took aim at the Netherlands on Thursdaydespite the previous day's election result, in which Dutch voters rejected right-wing populist Geert Wilders and his Islamophobic and anti-immigration platform.

"Hey Rutte! You may have emerged as the number one party in the election but you must know that you have lost Turkey as your friend," Erdogan said in his televised speech.

Many analysts believe Rutte's hardline approach to prohibiting Turkish politicians from campaigning in the Netherlands helped him gain the support of undecided voters who buoyed him to victory over Wilders.

Despite Turkey'sprevious criticism of the virulently anti-IslamWilders, Cavusoglu told a Turkish broadcaster on Thursday that there was "no difference" between the liberal Rutte and "fascist" Wilders.

The antagonistic rhetoric and authoritarian power expansions, as well as Ankara's threats to suspend the 2016 migration agreement with the EU, has thrown the EUneighbor's long-standing bid forentry into the bloc into question.

However, Cavusoglu later said in a different interview that "no reason" existed for Turkey to "move away from Europe."

Erdogan and Merkel have butted heads over Turkish campaign appearances in Germany

Merkel: 'The insults need to stop'

For her part, German Chancellor Angela Merkel denounced Erdogan's latest round of accusations. The Turkish president accused Merkel this week of supporting terrorists in theanti-Erdogan Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

"I don't intend to participate in this race to trade provocations," she told the German regional newspaper "Saarbrcker Zeitung."

"The insults need to stop," she added in comments printed in the paper's Friday edition, referencing Turkey's Nazi comparisons aimed at the Netherlands.

Merkel stated that Turkish political leaders are permitted to appear in the country under certain conditions: they must disclose who willappear and for what goal, and the foreign politicians must abide by Germany's laws and constitutional principles.

"We do not give anyone a carte blanche for the future," she added.

The chancellor's comments came the same day the city of Hannover scrapped a Friday rally organized by the Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD) at which a senior Erdogan government official was set to appear.

The last-minute cancellation indicates tempers could get hotter and the Turkish-German relationship perhaps even cooler.

cmb/sms (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

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Erdogan accuses EU of 'crusade' against Islam - Deutsche Welle

GETTY

The worrying advice has been called weeks ahead of a Turkish referendum aimed at giving more power to President Erdogan - and in the midst of a keeping fallout between Ankara and EU leaders.

Hayrettin Karaman, the Turkish AK Partys go-to religious leader, attacked the West in a letter which insisted Erdogan should immediately invest in weapons of mass destruction.

In the online post the imam accused Christian countries in the West of egotism and racism - stating the bad attitude towards Turkey has been accelerated.

President Erdogan is in the midst of a deep fall out with European nations including Germany and the Netherlands after both countries banned rallies and kicked out his ministers who had sworn to campaign for his referendum.

GETTY

Mr Erdogan retaliated by comparing them to Nazis and protests were held outside the Dutch embassy in Ankara.

The fallout threatens the 5billion one-for-one migrant deal.

But, if Mr Erdogan listens to his favourite religious leader, the tensions could be ramped up even further.

GETTY

We need to look at inventing these weapons, not buying them, without losing any time and listening to the words and obstacles of the West

Hayrettin Karaman

In a post online Mr Karaman called for the swift development of nuclear weapons.

He wrote: Once upon a time, military forces are arrows and horses, and now weapons are effective weapons invented by the age of science and technology, especially nuclear, and are the means by which they can be used.

We need to look at inventing these weapons, not buying them, without losing any time and listening to the words and obstacles of the West.

We invent, balance, but do not use weapons of mass destruction unless it is necessary; the way of not using it is to have the enemy or stronger.

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The Imam launched a scathing attack on the United States and Europe - insisting modern day developments have been paid for by crimes of the past.

He said: When it comes to values such as human rights, conscience, morality, justice, everyone knows and sees that the West implements a very ugly double standard without being embarrassed and ignorant.

Today, the wealth that the West (including the United States) has is derived from the East more extensively through extortion and robbery (colonialism).

It is not even possible to account for the material and moral values that the West has inflicted on the East for its bloody material benefit.

Mr Karaman wrote the post for the Yeni afak Newspaper in his column titled What to do.

In his post the Imam referred to the West dismantling the great Ottoman Turks and digging up the roots of Islam.

YouTube

He said Turkey must fight fire with fire - and match the weaponry in Europe.

He said: The West relies on material and military power, not on the right, the law, the adjective, the power of contemporary values while doing what it wants to the East and especially the leading potential Turkey.

If you want to get rid of being an oppressed and victim of the East, your right to religion is not justified; You need to be stronger than your enemy, not when you are right, but when you are strong.

As the relationship between Washington and Ankara wavered in 2016, Nato nuclear weapons were in in Turkey were being moved to Romania, it was claimed,

According to a report by the Simson Center, since the Cold War, some 50 US tactical nuclear weapons have been stationed at Turkeys Incirlik air base, approximately 100 kilometres from the Syrian border.

But after the failed coup a removal project began, it was reported.

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NUCLEAR TURKEY? Imam close to Erdogan calls for weapons NOW amid tensions with EU - Express.co.uk

BERLIN Members of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition party said on Tuesday they were optimistic that a majority of Turks would vote against expanding the powers of President Tayyip Erdogan in an April 16 referendum.

"Many Europeans here unfortunately think that Erdogan is invincible, but he is stoppable," Hisyar Ozsoy, a Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) member of Turkey's parliament, said after meeting with German lawmakers.

Ozsoy, one of four HDP lawmakers visiting the German parliament this week, said he hoped that the importance of the proposed constitutional change would help boost voter turnout in Turkey and among Turks living in the diaspora in Europe.

The German government said on Tuesday it would allow 1.4 million Turks who live in Germany and are eligible to vote to cast their ballots at 13 voting sites between March 27-April 9.

Tensions between the two NATO allies have spiked since Turkey arrested a German-Turkish journalist last month, and after Erdogan accused Germany of "fascist actions" after local officials canceled some rallies in support of the referendum.

Experts say about 60 percent of Turkish voters casting polls in Germany backed Erdogan's AKP party in the last presidential election, and the vote could turn out similarly this time.

But Ozsoy cited growing concerns among Turks from across the political spectrum about the proposed changes, which he said would "turn Turkey into a dictatorship".

Turkey's parliament last month stripped one of the HDP's two leaders of her status as a member of parliament and jailed the other. The HDP, the second-largest opposition party, says 13 of its lawmakers have been jailed, and as many as 5,000 of its members have been detained.

Erdogan says the constitutional changes will give Turkey stronger leadership. But the HDP and the main opposition secular CHP say it will lead to a one-man rule and erode basic freedoms.

Erdogan and the government say the HDP is an affiliate of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged an armed insurgency in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast for more than three decades. The HDP denies direct links to the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Germany has been sharply critical of Turkey's moves to arrest 40,000 people and dismiss or suspend more than 100,000 from the military, civil service and private sector following a failed coup in July.

Sevim Dagdelen, a member of the Left party in Germany's parliament who is of Turkish background herself, said many Turkish voters in Germany would have to travel long distances to participate, which could affect turnout.

People who are not on online lists of eligible voters would also have to go through additional cumbersome steps to get registered, she said.

Kirsten Luehmann, a member of the Social Democrats in Germany, lauded Ozsoy and the other Turkish lawmakers for continuing to fight for democracy.

"They are going back to Turkey this week, despite the fact that they don't know if they will be arrested," she said. "I admire their courage to stand up for democracy in Turkey."

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Catherine Evans)

SEOUL A U.S. policy of strategic patience with North Korea has ended, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in South Korea on Friday, adding that military action would be "on the table" if North Korea elevated the threat level.

BEIJING China will begin preparatory work this year for an environmental monitoring station on Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, an official said, as two U.S. senators introduced a bill to impose sanctions on its activities in the disputed waterway.

MANILA The Philippines derided the European parliament on Friday for interfering in its affairs after it issued a resolution calling for the release of a top critic of the president's war on drugs, which it said should target narcotics networks instead of users.

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Erdogan is 'stoppable,' pro-Kurdish lawmakers say - Reuters

A man pulls a cart in front of a huge portrait of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Taksim Square in Istanbul on March 15, 2017. Photo: BULENT KILIC / AFP

ISATANBUL - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said the EU has started a crusade against Islam with a ruling on Islamic headscarves and warned the Netherlands that Ankara was no longer a friend, in a worsening diplomatic crisis.

Turkey and the European Union are locked in their most explosive row in years after key EU members Germany and the Netherlands blocked Turkish ministers from holding rallies to win support for expanding Erdogan's powers in a referendum.

Ankara has expressed dismay over the rise of the anti-immigrant far-right in Europe but on Wednesday showed no pleasure over the election win of liberal Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, with the crisis showing no sign of abating.

READ:Dutch warn citizens in Turkey amid diplomatic tensions

Erdogan accused the EU's top court of starting a "crusade" against Islam after a ruling that allows European companies to ban employees from wearing religious or political symbols including the Islamic headscarf.

"The European Union's court, the European Court of Justice, my esteemed brothers, have started a crusade struggle against the (Muslim) crescent," Erdogan said in a televised speech.

"Europe is swiftly rolling back to the days before World War II," he added.

'Rutte same as Wilders'

In Wednesday's elections, Dutch voters returned Rutte's liberals to power seeing off a challenge from the party of anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders.

READ:Dutch far-right challenge falters as Rutte victorious

But with the acrimony that followed the blocking by the Dutch of Turkish ministers from holding political rallies still raging, Ankara said it saw no difference between the Dutch parties.

"Hey Rutte! You may have emerged as the number one party in the election but you must know that you have lost Turkey as your friend," Erdogan said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu earlier said there was "no difference" between the ruling Dutch liberals and the "fascist" Wilders.

Cavusoglu also predicted that "religious wars" will start in Europe due to the rise of the far right, saying the continent was being taken "to the cliff".

'Unacceptable remarks'

Erdogan has enflamed the row by repeatedly accusing Dutch and German politicians of acting like "Nazis". On Wednesday, he claimed the "spirit of fascism" was rampant in Europe.

Analysts say the Turkish strongman wants to be seen as standing up strongly to Europe in order to sweep up nationalist votes ahead of the April 16 referendum on the constitutional changes expanding his powers.

But his volcanic rhetoric has not gone down well in the EU and has raised questions about the continuation of Turkey's half century long bid to join the bloc.

The French and German leaders on Thursday condemned Erdogan's "unacceptable" remarks.

Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel "consider comparisons with Nazism and aggressive statements against Germany and other member states unacceptable", they said in a joint statement after speaking by telephone, the French president's office said.

'Implement migrant deal'

Turkey has also raised alarm in Brussels by threatening to unilaterally scrap a March 2016 deal that has substantially reduced the flow of migrants and refugees to the EU.

"We can stop it (the deal) unilaterally. We have not yet informed our (EU) counterparts, all of this is in our hands," Cavusoglu told 24 TV in an interview.

"From now on, we can say 'we will not apply it and it will be over'," he added.

READ:UN accuses Turkey security forces of serious abuses

He lambasted the EU for failing to allow Turks visa-free travel in return for the deal, an incentive that had been promised to Turkey if it fulfilled its side of the bargain.

The deal has been praised for preventing a repeat of the surge of migrants into Europe seen in 2015 that fanned the rise of the far-right.

The EU Commission said that it expected Turkey to implement the accord.

"This is an engagement of mutual trust and delivery and we expect that both sides will comply with their commitments," spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters.

Cavusoglu said Turkey was no longer implementing a key part of the deal, whereby it took back migrants who landed on the Greek islands as a deterrent.

AFP

15 March 2017

The EU comments came as Dutch voters went to the polls in a key test of right-wing populist strength ahead of elections in France and Germany later this year.

19 February 2017

Turkish officials repeated none of the gloom that some EU leaders expressed after Donald Trump's election, instead hoping that he would open a new page in relations.

12 February 2017

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Islamophobia "is the best support that Daesh can have to make its own propaganda,"

Link:
'You have lost Turkey as a friend' Erdogan tells Dutch PM - eNCA

With high-level diplomatic relations between Turkey and the Netherlands already frozen, Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the Dutch for failing to prevent the killing of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims when Bosnian Serb forces overran the town in 1995. In a reference to Dutch United Nations peacekeepers who were on the ground and failed to prevent the mass killing, Erdogan said Tuesday: "We know the Dutch and the people in Holland from the massacre of Srebrenica. We know them, how they massacred people in Srebrenica full well. We don't need anyone to give us a lesson on civilization."

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte responded to the remarks, accusing Erdogan of "a disgusting falsification of history."

In an interview with Dutch broadcaster RTL, Rutte said: "[Erdogan] continues to push the limits. This is of unbelievably low quality and style. We are not going to reduce ourselves to this level. This is very unacceptable and extremely irritating."

The Turkish president's incendiary comments -- made during a speech in Ankara -- came amid an escalating row sparked by Turkish officials being blocked from addressing political rallies in the Netherlands.

Shortly after Cavusoglu was refused entry, the Dutch stopped Turkey's Family Affairs Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya from entering the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam. She was later escorted out of the country.

Violent clashes erupted after the action against the two ministers who had hoped to drum up support for an April 16 referendum to give greater powers to Erdogan.

Erdogan has already made angry remarks against the Dutch since the incidents in Rotterdam -- comparing the current government to Nazis.

The Netherlands lost more than 200,000 of its citizens when it was occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II and Rutte has demanded an apology.

On Monday, Turkey announced that it would not allow the Dutch ambassador to Ankara to return to Turkey and suspended high-level diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The growing tensions come ahead of the Dutch general election on Wednesday; far-right candidate Geert Wilders' anti-Islam, anti-EU Party for Freedom (PVV) is expected to make a strong showing.

Erdogan also implored Dutch voters of immigrant backgrounds not to cast their ballots for Wilders, who he described as an "extreme racist" or Prime Minister Rutte in Wednesday's election.

CNN's Rosalyn Saab, James Gray and Schams Elwazer also contributed to this report.

The rest is here:
Erdogan blames Dutch for Srebrenica - CNN.com