TURKEY
Erdogan’s empty threats don’t scare us
Deutsche Welle (Berlin)
Europeans are hostile towards Turkey because they’re “jealous” of its fine bridges, dams and subway trains. That’s the latest extraordinary claim by President Erdogan, says Gunnar Köhne, and we will be hearing more of this sort of thing, now that Europe has cooled on promises to give Turks visa-free travel in return for stopping the flow of migrants. Germany’s Angela Merkel now says that perk won’t be given until Erdogan agrees to a number of conditions, notably that he stop using terrorism laws to hound opponents: a recent travesty was lifting the immunity of MPs, which means Kurdish opposition members can be labelled terrorists and expelled. Infuriated, Erdogan is threatening to retaliate by unleashing a new wave of migrants. Yet he well knows…
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