Changing Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws is out of the question as it would endanger both Turkey and Europe’s security, EU Minister Ömer Çelik said on Jan. 4. The EU had preconditioned Turkey to amend its anti-terror laws if it wanted its citizens to access visa-free travel to the bloc. “We have reiterated that we cannot meet EU’s demands to amend our anti-terror laws. However, we have no problems in meeting the other criteria,” he said at a joint press conference with U.K. Minister for EU Affairs Alan Duncan in Ankara.“To ask a country, which has been hit by many terrorist attacks, to change its anti-terror law, is to put the security of Turkey and Europe in jeopardy,” Çelik said, recalling the Jan. 1 attack on Istanbul’s Reina nightclub that claimed 39 lives. Duncan, for his part, said the U.K. wanted to extend its support to Turkey in its fight against terrorism.
