Ankara-Brussels spat grows as trips, meetings cancelled

GERMANS CANCELLED MEETING WITH TURKS

After the delegation canceled its trip to Turkey, German ruling party Christian Democratic Union (CDU) member Elmar Brok and Spanish Christian Democrat José Ignacio Salafranca requested to meet with Turkish EU Minister Egemen Bağış on Tuesday. But they also canceled the meeting in a last-minute decision.

18 June 2013 /TODAYSZAMAN.COM, İSTANBUL – Turkish Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin has canceled a scheduled trip to Brussels while a European Parliament delegation also canceled a planned trip to Turkey as the spat between the two sides grows amid three-week demonstrations related to Gezi Park protesters. The dispute is the latest in a round of political bickering between the European Union and Turkey as the war of words escalated in the past week while the government is trying to contain the protests.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan lashed out at the European Parliament (EP) last week after it endorsed a decision rebuking Turkey for police’s use of force against protesters. Ankara declared the decision null and void. The government set off protests nationwide and drew criticism abroad over a police crackdown that began May 31 against environmentalists and other activists in Taksim Square who were protesting plans to cut down trees and redevelop the adjacent Gezi Park. Thousands have flooded the streets nightly since then, many honking car horns and waving Turkish flags. Erdoğan, who has held power for 10 years and was re-elected in 2011, mobilized his supporters over the weekend in two huge rallies — insisting his duty was to keep order, railing against media coverage of the protests and lashing out at unspecified foreigners who he said want to hurt Turkey.

Members of the EP’s Committee on Foreign Affairs were expected to visit Ankara on June 19-20. The 13-member delegation was expected to hold meetings in Ankara and the southeastern province of Diyarbakır as part of the settlement process. EP Turkey rapporteur Ria Oomen-Ruijten said in a statement that the trip of the EP delegation was canceled under the circumstances of latest developments in Turkey and that the agenda items could not be discussed in a productive way.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said the request to cancel the meeting came from the European delegation. “If the delegation was coming to Turkey to discuss the settlement process but canceled the meeting for another reason, it was irrelevant.”

After the delegation canceled its trip to Turkey, German ruling party Christian Democratic Union (CDU) member Elmar Brok and Spanish Christian Democrat José Ignacio Salafranca requested to meet with Turkish EU Minister Egemen Bağış on Tuesday. But they also canceled the meeting in a last-minute decision.

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