Minister for EU Affairs Ömer Çelik participated in the 37th meeting of the EU-Türkiye Joint Consultative Committee

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Ömer Çelik participated in the 37th meeting of the EU-Türkiye Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) and made the opening speech. Minister Çelik, who made statements regarding the agenda, said: “Our friends, who support us when we fight against Da’esh, do not demonstrate the same support when we fight against the PDY and YPG, which are affiliated with the PKK, another terrorist organisation. They need to be more consistent regarding terrorist organisations.”

Minister Çelik said that the EU would face threats such as the rise of the far right, which threatened the European peoples and values, hostility to migrants and xenophobia as long as the EU did not make efforts to deepen and extend towards the people. Minister Çelik pointed out that certain politicians in Europe had made statements during election periods that encouraged hostility to migrants, xenophobia, hostility to Islam and anti-Semitism in the past two years. Minister Çelik said: “Unfortunately, many lies can be told prior to elections.” Minister Çelik also said: “My belief is that civil society organisations will protect European values without becoming involved in these politics and surrendering to biases. I would like to say that I find this civil society dialogue to be important and valuable.”

Minister Çelik underlined that they had faced double standards in many places after the 15 July coup attempt and said: “The first statement made by Europe to condemn the coup was unfortunate and wrong. The first statement made by the EU regarding the coup attempt in Türkiye was to “invite both parties to moderation.” In other words, a declaration was made which recommended demonstrating moderation to our people who were fighting against those who wanted to kill them as if they were the same.  Of course, there were very sound messages later.”

Minister Çelik emphasized that Türkiye was leading a strong fight against terrorism in Afrin, and said: “Our fight against terrorism is fully in compliance with international law, in particular the United Nations.  I participated in the Informal Meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Bulgaria. I heard certain statements when I was there, such as ‘we believe that your current fight against terrorism will weaken your fight against Da’esh.’ This is certainly not true.  It is clear that Türkiye is the country that carries out the strongest fight against Da’esh in the field.”