After insisting that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was “deploying Nazi measures” against Turkish officials who had hoped to campaign for domestic referendum on German soil, Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a disturbing message to Europeans Wednesday.
“If you continue to behave like this, tomorrow in no part of the world, no European, no Westerner will be able to take steps on the street safely and peacefully,” Erdogan stated during a rally at the Turkish capital of Ankara. Turkey is “not a country to push, to prod, to play with its honour, to shove its ministers out of the door, drag its citizens on the floor.”
Erdogan refused to elaborate on what he meant by his remarks, but they were enough to send chills down the spines of Europeans already fearful of radical Islamic terrorist attacks carried out by incoming Muslim migrants passing through Turkey.
“Erdogan did not expand on what he meant by his comments but appeared to imply that Europeans risked receiving the same treatment that, he says, is endured by Turks and Muslims in Europe,” notes AFP.
As it stands, Merkel’s de facto agreement with Erdogan to stem the flow of refugees passing into Europe from Turkey in exchange for cash and concessions that may one day allow Turkey to formally enter the European Union, is in serious jeopardy.
For months now, Turkey has been essentially extorting Merkel and other European officials, demanding that Germany and other powerhouse economies tip-toe around Erdogan’s capricious feelings so that Turkish border officials don’t open the floodgates and allow the millions of refugees camped out in Turkey to pour into an already-unstable Europe.
“If Greece and Germany continue their negative attitude toward Turkey, then Turkey has no other option but to relax its hold on migrants,” Erdogan adviser Ilnur Cevik said earlier this year. “Turkey has nothing to lose because Turkey has not gained anything.”
In an attempt to prevent another round of mass migrations, Merkel has trod lightly, doing virtually everything in her power to appease Erdogan’s fickle sensibilities, including calling for the criminal prosecution of a German poet who dared to insult the Turkish dictator with mere words.
But Erdogan’s recent remarks threatening Europe’s people with esoteric omens of danger may force Merkel’s hand. After submitting to Erdogan’s every whim, the German chancellor may have to finally confront the Turkish dictator.