Greece's attitude toward migrants has reached "brutal levels," President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday as he accused Western countries of remaining indifferent to this atrocity and displaying insincerity in the face of human rights violations.
"The attitude of our western neighbor Greece toward migrants has now reached the level of brutality," Erdoğan said in his address to the inaugural congress of the Conference of Constitutional Jurisdictions of the Islamic World in Istanbul. "Unfortunately, the Western countries are not responding to this brutality of Greece," he rued.
"We are all deeply saddened by the indifference to the heart-wrenching images from the borderline and the refugee shelters resembling Nazi camps," Erdoğan also said.
A similar approach is also witnessed in the fight against the terrorists by hiding behind the phrase of a "political asylum seeker" to host terrorists, he added.
Türkiye has repeatedly condemned Greece's illegal practice of pushing back asylum-seekers, stating it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants, including women and children.
In recent years, hundreds of thousands have made short but perilous journeys across the Aegean to reach Northern and Western Europe in search of a better life. Hundreds of people have died at sea as many boats carrying refugees sank or capsized. The Turkish Coast Guard Command has rescued thousands of others.
Türkiye and Greece are key transit points for migrants looking to enter Europe, fleeing war and persecution to start new lives. Türkiye has accused Greece of large-scale pushbacks, summary deportations and denying migrants access to asylum procedures, which is an international law violation. Ankara also accuses the EU of turning a blind eye to this blatant abuse of human rights.
Erdoğan also slammed the West's insincerity and hypocrisy toward the issues of human rights, the rule of law and security.
He said Western countries and certain institutions that close their doors to migrants show "high levels of tolerance to the terrorist groups PKK and FETÖ (Gülenist Terror Group)."
The separatist PKK terrorist group is indeed financing its attack on Syria, Iraq and Türkiye by receiving and collecting donations from those countries every year, he added.
Türkiye has been frequently voicing concerns over European countries' tolerance toward the PKK, however, the terrorist organization still maintains a strong presence in the region, still able to hold rallies and engage in recruitment activities.
The EU's law enforcement agency Europol classified the PKK as an "ethno-nationalist" and "separatist" terrorist group, saying in its reports that the group still uses European countries for propaganda, recruitment and fundraising activities, even though in most it is officially banned.
While the United States continues to be the main center of FETÖ activities and hosts its leader Fetullah Gülen, many European countries also host FETÖ fugitives who fled Türkiye despite Ankara's extradition requests.
FETÖ orchestrated the July 15, 2016, defeated coup in Türkiye, in which 251 people were killed and 2,734 were injured. It was also behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
The Islamic world is exposed to unfair, baseless and merciless criticisms of law and justice, Erdoğan also said, adding: "Those who do not have the virtue of confronting their colonial past are talking to us about human rights and the rule of law every time they open their mouths."
"When it comes to their own security, those who react harshly, are speaking out against our legal and justice system. Those who see no harm in supporting bloody terrorist organizations in many countries of the world lecture us on the sanctity of human life," the president underlined.
Additionally, speaking on the Syrian crisis that he said claimed the lives of more than 1 million Syrians, Erdoğan remarked: "Unfortunately, humanity did not give a good test in the face of this crisis."
Western countries and institutions raised their voices on "the human tragedy in Syria, only when refugees knock on their doors," he said.
Instead of finding a solution to the crisis, their reaction was manifested as closing the migrants behind barbed wire fences, the president said.
When it comes to their own prosperity, safety and security, those who ignore the oppressed outside their borders, display the "most primitive examples of fascism," Erdoğan argued.
