PM Erdoğan: Turkey freer than some EU states

ISTANBUL

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife Emine are seen in Sochi Feb 7, where they attended the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. AA photo

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has told Al-Jazeera that his country is freer than a number of EU states, in an interview on Feb. 8.

“Turkey is freer than some states of the European Union,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told Al-Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal. “When you refer to the Gezi Park events, why do you not see the events in Frankfurt? Or in Hamburg? Have you seen what the police did there?” said Erdoğan, comparing the  Turkish police’s tough response to last year’s Gezi Park protests to recent protests in Germany. 

“Why do you [not] see what happens in England?” he added.

Hundreds of people were recently injured in anti-austerity riots in Hamburg and Frankfurt, while in London in 2011, riot police put down unrest sparked by the shooting of an unarmed man. Many rioters prosecuted were handed the most severe punishments allowed by law.

“I am not saying that two wrongs make one right. I am presenting you with examples,” Erdoğan told Al-Jazeera. “We stand against damage being done to public property. Our job is to take measures to establish peace and order.”