Ankara: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday told Western critics to “mind your own business” over a relentless crackdown following a failed coup.
With concern growing about the sheer numbers rounded-up, EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn said he needed to see “black-and-white facts about how these people are treated”.
“And if there is even the slightest doubt that the (treatment) is improper, then the consequences will be inevitable,” he told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
In a speech at his presidential palace late on Friday remembering those killed during the failed coup, Erdogan angrily denounced the criticism and accused the West of deserting Turkey in its hour of need.
“Some people give us advice. They say they are worried. Mind your own business! Look at your own deeds,” Erdogan said.
“Not a single person has come to give condolences either from the European Union... or from the West,” said Erdogan.
“Those countries or leaders who are not worried about Turkey’s democracy, the lives of our people, its future – while being so worried about the fate of the putschists – cannot be our friends,” he said.
