Continuing to attack European Union countries during his nonstop “yes” campaign ahead of an April 16 referendum on a switch to an executive presidency, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday said Europe is the center of Nazism today and will pay a heavy price for it, Al Jazeera Turk reported.
“Europe is finished. But they will pay a heavy price. During this process [EU-Turkey relations] all those things they used to claim they defend have crashed to the ground,” Erdoğan said during a referendum rally in Balıkesir on Thursday.
“Today, in the eyes of billions of people, Europe is not a center of democracy, human rights and freedoms, but a center of pressure, violence and Nazism. We know it as this. Racists lead European leaders and governments by the nose. Europe no longer has anything to say to us or to the world. It’s a continent that has been rotting away,” added Erdoğan.
Criticizing a meeting of European Union leaders at the Vatican with Pope Francis on Friday, Erdoğan last month said “the alliance of crusaders has shown itself in the end.”
“EU member states met at the Vatican. These developments bring something to mind. Why did you meet at the Vatican? Why did you meet before the pope? When did the pope become a member of the EU? The alliance of crusaders has shown itself in the end. That is it. What did you tell us up to now? ‘You repeat this, but there is no such thing. Yes, you [EU] won’t accept Turkey into the EU because Turkey is Muslim. I have said this now. Look at what will happen tomorrow,” said Erdoğan during a referendum campaign rally in İstanbul’s Sancaktepe district.
On April 2, Erdoğan called on people to respond to the EU, which he describes as the alliance of crusaders, in a referendum on April 16.