Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu lashed out at the European Union, claiming that it is treating it as a second class citizen, and that European countries tacitly supported the abortive July, 2016 coup, in the hours before it collapsed.

In an interview with Deutsche Welle’s Tim Sebastian, Cavusoglu said Turkey is part of Europe whether anyone likes it or not, and he accused France and the European Commission of blocking accession chapters needed to advance its EU candidacy

Cavusoglu attempted to explain why he accused The Netherlands of racism and of neo-Nazi tendencies, attributing the unprecedented attack to the government’s refusal to allow him to make campaign stops to address Turkish residents. He claimed that the Dutch started it when their PM told him he could go and see the tulips but not the Turks.

«You have your own understanding of democracy. And when you violate democratic standards you said it is sovereignty. So how can you try to teach democracy to Turkey then? Who gives you the right then? If you think that you have the right to criticize Turkey for this and that, you should also accept that I can criticize any country when they violate the democratic standards,» said Cavusoglu.

The Turkish foreign minister accused the Europeans over the 2016 thwarted coup and defended the continuing state of emergency. «The security of my people is more important than your comments and your understanding. You didn’t want to understand what happened in Turkey and many countries in the West supported the plotters,» said Cavusoglu, who refused repeatedly to name any particular country.

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