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Erdogan Furious with Europe as Referendum Draws Near

<p>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at Europe this week&comma; saying &ldquo&semi;no European in any part of the world can walk safety on the streets&rdquo&semi; if Europe doesn&rsquo&semi;t change its attitude&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Turkish President is frustrated by what he calls the &ldquo&semi;Nazi methods&rdquo&semi; Germany and the Netherlands are using to disrupt campaign appearances by Turkish ministers seeking to boost support for an April 16th referendum on Turkey&rsquo&semi;s constitution&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;Turkey is not a country you can pull and push around&comma; not a country whose citizens you can drag on the ground&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Erdogan on Wednesday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The &ldquo&semi;footsteps of neo-Nazism and extreme racism could be heard in Europe&comma;&rdquo&semi; added Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus&period; &nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This week&comma; newly elected German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier used his inaugural speech to warn Erdogan that his vitriol against Europe threatens to destroy everything Turkey has achieved in recent years&period; &nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The way we look &lpar;at Turkey&rpar; is characterized by worry&comma; that everything that has been built up over years and decades is collapsing&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Steinmeier&comma; adding that the &ldquo&semi;unspeakable Nazi comparisons&rdquo&semi; must stop&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are roughly 1&period;4 million Turks living in Germany that will be eligible to vote in the upcoming referendum&period; If approved&comma; the referendum will expand Erdogan&rsquo&semi;s power and transform the way Turkey is governed&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Union of European Turkish Democrats announced Tuesday that Turkish officials would no longer be holding campaign rallies in Germany after a Merkel ally made it clear they were not welcome&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8212&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Relations between Europe and Turkey have been strained following President Erdogan&rsquo&semi;s authoritarian and inhumane response&nbsp&semi;to the failed coup of July 2016&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Erdogan detained 40&comma;000 of his own people in the days and months following the coup&comma; and fired over 100&comma;000 government employees in a paranoid &&num;8220&semi;purge&&num;8221&semi; aimed to&nbsp&semi;weed out those he suspected of disloyalty&period; &nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This week&comma; Erdogan instructed Turks living in Europe to multiply at a faster rate&colon; &ldquo&semi;Have five children&comma; not three&period; You are Europe&rsquo&semi;s future&period; This is the best answer to the rudeness shown to you&comma; the enmity&comma; the wrongs&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Editor&&num;8217&semi;s note&colon; Turkey is rapidly developing a &&num;8220&semi;bad actor&&num;8221&semi; motif&period; Erdogan is more concerned with the rights of the Islamic population in Europe than he is with Western ideals like democracy&comma; and economic development&period; &nbsp&semi;From a Western perspective&comma; this is not a good direction&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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