Get lost kid, Bağış tells Dutch MP

STRASBOURG - Anatolia News Agency

Turkish EU Minister Egemen Bağış has told a far-right Dutch member of the European Parliament to “get lost” after the deputy attempted to give him his party’s anti-Islam book.

Barry Madlener took to the stage and attempted to give a book titled “Marked for Death: Islam’s War against the West and Me” published by his far-right Dutch party PVV to Bağış.

Bağış refused to take the book from Madlener during a meeting of the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee in Strasbourg on June 13. He told Madlener to “put [the book] where you put the cartoon” in reference to a similar exchange that took place between the two politicians in a meeting last year.

Bağış told the meeting that he told Madlener, “get lost, kid.” On Nov. 29, 2011, Madlener had attempted to give Bağış a cartoon that had become the subject of a lawsuit in Turkey for allegedly including anti-Islam illustrations. Bağış, however, refused to take the “gift” and told Madlener “to put it in his appropriate place.”

The co-chair of the commission, Helene Flautre, took the book just as she accepted the cartoon a year ago. Bağış told her that she shows the same kindness at all meetings.