Turkish Prime Minister Presents an "Ultimatum" to Europe

01:28     18 January, 2015

The Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, after his visit to Paris, where on January 11 he participated in the rally organized against terrorist attacks on magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket, had an interview with journalist. Hurriyet reports that in his interview Prime Minister Davutoğlu commented on the Islamophobia in Europe putting a kind of "ultimatum" to the Europeans to come to terms with the fact that the Muslims have been and will be present in Europe. He particularly stated:

"Islam is there to stay in Europe. Everyone sees this.  Today it was impossible to send back Muslims in Europe as if they are just temporary migrants. This was very clear in Mrs. Angela Merkel’s speech today. However, I doubt how much of this persuasion has spread among some sections, especially among those with prejudices."

In his interview Turkish prime minister explained the rise of racism in Europe by the economic crisis. It is interesting to notice that referring to racism in Europe he also mentioned the name of the organization "Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West" operating in Europe, labeling the activity of organization as "sending very dangerous messages." By this Davutoğlu as if wanted to make the Europeans realize that the radicalism is not only common for Islam and Muslims cannot also be completely secured from radicalism in Europe.

As the same news agency reports, the Turkish Prime Minister  addressing his ruling "Justice and Development Party" (AKP) for the second time (the first was the day before, when the leader of Palestinian  Authority Mahmoud Abbas was officially received at the Turkish presidential palace) could not restrain from blaming the ruling regimes in Syria and Israel for being engaged in "state terror". Commenting on his visit to Paris Davutoğlu particularly stated:

"We are Europeans and we will remain as Europeans. By being there [at the Paris rally], we have cried that Islam is a fundamental religion in Europe. Muslims are members of a religion who have their multiculturalism in the history of both Andalusia and the Ottoman Empire," Davutoğlu said. 

It is interesting to notice that in spite of the Turkish Prime Minister’s "excitement" for his participation in anti-terrorist rally, his visit to Paris was not overall well-received in his own country. Particularly, as  Hurriyet  reports, the leader of Republican People’s opposition party  Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu stated that Turkish Prime Minister had no right to participate in the anti-terrorist rally, as long as the rally was organized for such values as human rights and democracy, about which the Turkish Prime Minster has completely no sense.