EU risks own security with anti-terror code push: EU Minister

“In such a period of time, to say ‘change your anti-terror law,’ means putting the EU’s safety into jeopardy,” said Ömer Çelik, Turkey’s EU minister and the chief negotiator with the bloc, during a televised interview with private broadcaster Habertürk on Aug. 9. 

By saying “a period of time,” Çelik was referring to the failed coup attempt on July 15, launched to topple the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who accuse U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and his supporters of orchestrating the failed attempt. 

In exchange for Turkey helping to curb the migrant flow into the bloc, the EU vowed to grant visa-free travel for Turkish citizens inside the Schengen area, on condition that Turkey met all of the 72 criteria, which also included a change in Turkey’s anti-terror law, which the EU sees as violating human rights in the name of conducting anti-terror operations. 

“They [the EU] say ‘the anti-terror law.’ There is no such standard in the EU. When a coalition of 50 states cannot fight against Daesh, we do,” said Çelik, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which controls swath of land in two country’s neighboring Turkey, namely Syria and Iraq. 

A U.S.-led coalition of 66 partners, mainly consisting of states, is trying to fight against ISIL. 

Erdoğan called on the EU on Aug. 8 to keep its side of the deal on visa waivers or otherwise prepare for the collapse of the migrant deal.