The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly denounced, in the evening of Monday 14 October, the decisions of the European Foreign Ministers at their Council meeting earlier in the day (see EUROPE 12348/1, 12348/2), announcing that their country would reconsider its relations with the EU.
"We fully reject and condemn the calls made against our country and the conclusions adopted by the Council under the titles "Northeast Syria" and "Turkey's Drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean"", the Ministry said in a statement.
"We will seriously reconsider our cooperation with the EU in certain areas, because of its illegal and biased position", it warns.
The Ministry considers "unacceptable" the term "illegal" for Turkish research and drilling activities, when they are "resolutely carried out to protect our own rights and those of Turkish Cypriots in the Eastern Mediterranean". "We will resolutely pursue our hydrocarbon activities with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (recognised only by Turkey) and, if the EU applies certain preventive measures, we will respond accordingly", it added.
The Ministry also describes as "unacceptable" the "protective approach (of the EU) towards terrorist elements in the face of threats and attacks against our national security and against the territorial integrity of Syria and its national unity by the terrorist organisation PYD/YPG". According to the Ministry, the EU's silence on "the massacre of eighteen innocent civilians murdered in our country in the last two days as a result of PYD/YPG terrorism (...) is a manifestation of this misguided approach".
"We invite the EU (...) and the Member States that support this organisation (the PYD/YPG) to be self-critical and to use common sense about their responsibilities in the course of today's events. The EU, with its current policies and practices, has no right to lecture Turkey on the fight against Daesh", the Ministry added. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)