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Ambassador Ertas : Turkey is continuing talks with EU for the liberalisation of visas for Turkish nationals travelling to the EU
Turkey is continuing talks with the European Union for the liberalisation of visas for Turkish nationals travelling to the EU, with October 2016 being the deadline for an agreement, Turkey's ambassador in Romania Osman Koray Ertas told a news conference on Tuesday in Bucharest.
He said the visa liberalisation talks are part of an agreement signed by Turkey with the EU in March 2016.
Turkey, he said, has assumed a very high risk, since it has to bring back any migrants to the Greek islands, not just the Syrian migrants. Imagine, he added, that there are 100 African migrants crossing the borders into Turkey and then moving to Greece, who are not Turkish citizens but whom Turkey has to risk bringing back. When they are brought back into Turkey, he added, there is not knowing what to do with them, whether trying to send them back to their home countries or trying to integrate them.
He said Turkey's commitment to managing the migration has generated remarkable results. Who would undertake such risk in Europe, he wondered, adding that Turkey committed to this; it has done its part of the bargain and results were remarkable. That was the biggest humanitarian crisis after WWII and would overstretch Europe, said Ertas, adding that part of the deal was the liberalisation of tourist visas, not work visas.
He said the deadline was set for October, but Turkey does not want to put media pressure for the visas. Turkey, he said, will obviously wait for the deadline as the negotiations go on, because it wants to solve the issues.
Turkey is aware of its obligations to observe human rights
According to him, Turkey is aware of its obligations to observe human rights; it will continue to be an active NATO ally and observe its strategic partnership with Romania. He said that the developments in the second half of July were the bloodiest attempted coup d'etat in the history of Turkey.
He said the Turkish people have taken an attitude and the Turkish citizens risked their lives for democracy. Everybody in Turkey, including the Opposition, raised up against the attempted coup, the ambassador said, adding that all this proves the strength of Turkey's democracy and its institutions, as well as the extent to which democracy has been internalised by the Turkish society.
Ertas also mentioned a three-month state of emergency declared in Tukey in the aftermath of the failed coup, saying the decision was backed by the national Parliament and an Opposition party. He said he wanted to emphasise the agreement to prove there is a wrong perception when things are presented through the actions of Turkey's President Erdogan exclusively, adding that the emergency state was not the decision of just one man, because Turkey is a democracy.
He explained that the emergency state was not declared in order to restrict fundamental human rights and freedoms, because nothing will change in the daily lives of the Turkish citizens as far as their freedoms are concerned.
Turkey will continue to develop its contribution to NATO security
He assured that Turkey is fully aware of its obligations related to democracy, the observance of human rights and international conventions; Turkey, he said, will continue to develop its contribution to NATO, to NATO security, while also continuing to develop its strategic partnership with Romania in all areas.
Ertas said Turkey's banking system is currently safe.
As for Turkey's relations with Russia and Iran, Ertas said nothing has changed from one year previously; the relations, he added, were already strong, which does not preclude Turkey from being a strong NATO ally, while also being critical of Russia for the annexation of Crimea. Turkey knows its commitments and place in the world, added the ambassador, saying that what Turkey did was resume normalcy and restore the situation to before the Russian aircraft was shot down [in November last year].
The ambassador also discussed how President Erdogan is seen after the failed coup.
He said there is a kind of obsession abroad with Erdogan, adding that, unfortunately, he noticed the same in Romania. Erdogan, he said, is no monarch, no emir; Turkey, he added, has an Opposition, a government and a Parliament and the president does not do anything on his own; he has no such authority, since there are institutions and laws in Turkey that decide what to be done. Such image of Erdogan, said Ertas, is distorted.
He said this is an essential detail especially as far as the capital punishment is concerned. Erdogan, said Ertas, has no authority to introduce the capital punishment alone, and he himself said that if Parliament sends to him a proposal for the capital punishment to be reinstated, he will accept. People are very angry after the failed coup and there will be a detailed discussion but any discussion now is premature, added the ambassador.
He said Turkey's state officials know about a report by the Amnesty International organisation claiming people in Turkey were subjected to torture after the failed coup, adding that the officials took the report very seriously.
There will be no vengeful attitude and everything will be done within the limits of the law, said Ertas, adding that no ill treatment of detainees, guilty or not, will be tolerated. Any complaint will be taken very seriously, and torture will not be tolerated in Turkey, the ambassador said, adding that there could be ill treatments now because of how unique the situation is, but all such cases will be checked individually.
A decision regarding the Romanian schools that are allegedly financed by Fethullah Gulen belongs to the Romanian officials
Turkish ambassador in Bucharest Osman Koray Ertas said on Tuesday that a decision regarding the Romanian schools that are allegedly financed by Fethullah Gulen - a US-based cleric whom Turkish authorities blame for standing behind a failed coup in Turkey on July 15 - belongs to the Romanian officials, but Turkey raised the alarm on the issue. Asked whether he maintains his opinion that some of the teachers in the charter school network that also operates in Romania have ties with Fethullah Gulen, the ambassador answered in the affirmative.
He also quoted a director of such a school from Constanta who - in response to an earlier interview of the ambassador, had said that they are looking up to Gulen because Romanians revere towering personalities such as poet Mihai Eminescu and playwright Ioan Luca Caragiale, and that in general this community has a positive opinion about Gulen. Elaborating on his stance, the ambassador added that it is up to the Romanian officials to decide on the matter.
In a foreign country, said Ertas, I cannot point fingers and say they are doing this or that. The only thing I can say, he added, is that ten years ago the Turkish society overall and even the Turkish community of Romania considered Gulen's sympathisers to be harmless, friendly and moderate Islamists, but now it's obvious that their dark side is a serious danger to Turkey's security.
Ertas added that the Turkish officials urge caution in Romania and also worldwide.
The Turkish diplomat said that official discussions are being held behind closed doors with Romanian authorities, and that it is up to the Romanian officials to make a sovereign decision. (...) We are simply sounding alarm not only in Romania, but all over the world, he said, adding that they will continue to warn national governments, some of which have already taken action.