Turkish EU Minister calls The Economist cover ‘pathetic and ignorant’

ANKARA – Doğan News Agency

European Union Minister Egemen Bağış said British weekly The Economist’s cover, which pictured Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a sultan holding a gas mask, was 'pathetic and ignorant.' DHA photo

Turkey’s European Union Minister Egemen Bağış said British weekly The Economist’s cover, which pictured Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a sultan holding a gas mask, was “pathetic and ignorant.”

The Economist’s June 8 edition asked whether Erdoğan was a “Democrat or Sultan?”

“The Economist did it again. A photoshop portrait, lots of hype and a long list of demands … I wonder when the last time this paper used so many modal verbs – ‘must’ and ‘should’ – in an article was, while trying to dictate to Turkey and its democratically elected government,” Bağış said June 14 in Ankara.

“If not plainly pathetic and ignorant, The Economist’s abuse of the sultan portrait is a thinly veiled and outrageous threat. The portrait that photo is based on was of Sultan Selim III. He was a reformist sultan who abolished the corrupt and unruly Yeniçeri army,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Abdullah Gül also criticized a European Parliament resolution on Turkey regarding the unrest in the country.

Gül said on June 14 that Taksim Gezi Park protests held across Turkey were similar to the ones in Madrid, Athens, New York and London, criticizing the European Parliament’s resolution on Turkey.

“The EU probably knows that Turkey is negotiating its EU membership with the EU. The condition for negotiations is carrying out the Copenhagen political criteria. Turkey can negotiate its EU accession talks as it fulfilled the criteria. When the European Parliament reacts, it should take this into consideration. These protests are similar to the ones in Madrid, Athens, New York and London,” he said.