The 64th meeting of the European Union-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee was marred by tension on Tuesday evening after harsh and judgmental remarks by a Dutch member of the European Parliament. During the meeting, held in Ýstanbul, Turkey’s chief EU negotiator Egemen Baðýþ was responding to questions from the committee when Barry Madlener, a Dutch politician from the Party for Freedom (PVV), stood up and started speaking: “If a referendum were to be held in the Netherlands today, then 80 percent would say ‘no’ to Turkey’s EU membership,” the Anatolia news agency reported. “Why do you recognize the illegitimate KKTC [Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus] elections that are held? Your real friend is Iran’s dictator [President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad,” NTV news channel quoted Madlener as saying. He left the meeting hall after delivering these remarks, NTV reported. While speaking, Baðýþ recalled Madlener’s remarks about the results of a possible referendum and asked whether Madlener was in the hall. Seeing that he left the meeting, Baðýþ criticized him for leaving without listening to the answers to the questions he posed. “I will tell those who are curious the answer to that question. Racism is a very dangerous illness. Europe has suffered much from this illness. We see that there are still those who can’t get rid of this in Europe. That’s why the EU is very important,” Baðýþ was quoted as saying by Anatolia, as he called the EU “the most comprehensive peace project.”
Today Zaman
