Erdoğan slams 'Hungarian Jew Soros' while warning Europe over ‘terror support’

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Nov. 22 accused Europe of supporting terrorism, while slamming "Hungarian Jew George Soros."

“Yesterday, the ECHR made a ruling against our country. Turkey allegedly violated the security and election rights in the trial of a former party leader who is in relations with the terrorist organization PKK. Have you seen any action from European Union bodies declaring that that same person has on his hands the blood of 50 people from the events of Oct. 6-8, 2014?” Erdoğan said, referring to the ECHR’s ruling on Nov. 20 on Selahattin Demirtaş, the jailed former co-leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

On Nov. 20, the ECHR urged Turkey to swiftly process Demirtaş’s legal case, saying his pre-trial detention had gone on longer than could be justified. The ECHR also criticized Turkey for keeping Demirtaş detained during this year’s presidential elections.

Erdoğan: ECHR ruling 'not binding'

Hours after the ECHR’s ruling, Erdoğan dismissed the ruling as not binding and, without elaborating, said Turkey would take steps against the decision.

Erdoğan accuses the HDP, the third largest party in parliament, of ties to the illegal PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and European Union. The HDP denies direct links.

“Whichever city you go to in Europe today, you see that supporters of the terrorist organization roam free and collect millions of euros while our patriotic citizens are given virtually no quarter,” Erdoğan said on Nov. 21, while addressing local administrators (“muhtar” in Turkish) in the capital Ankara.

“Are you following this, ECHR? Do you have a ruling on these? No country which holds FETÖ members that attempted a coup in Turkey in high esteem has any right to speak of democracy. Doing so is not supporting freedoms or being in pursuit of rights. It is outright terrorist-philia,” he said.

“I am warning our European friends, those terrorists that you love so much will turn their guns to you the moment your interests clash,” the Turkish president added.

Soros 'assigned to divide nations'

Erdoğan has also slammed main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s recent remarks criticizing last week the detentions of human rights activists in connection to the 2013 Gezi Park protests.

“Yesterday, the leader of this party [Kılıçdaroğlu] asserted some nonsense that praised the Gezi Park protests, extolled the so-called vandal protestors and accused us with regards to this. I am repeating one more time, Gezi Park protests were a project just like the leader of the CHP is,” Erdoğan said.

"The person, who financed terrorists during the Gezi incidents, is currently in prison [Osman Kavala]. And who is behind him? The famous Hungarian Jew George Soros. This is a man who was assigned to divide nations and shatter them. He has so much money and he is spending it in these ways," he added.