Europe will drown in its own fears of Muslims and migrants: President Erdoğan

Europe will “drown in its own fears of Muslims and migrants”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on March 15, further hardening his tone just hours after an exchange of words between Ankara and Brussels on the future of a refugee deal. Erdoğan said the “spectre of fascism is roaming” on the streets of Europe, comparing the treatment of non-Europeans there to that of the Jews in World War II. They are scared of everything that is not from there. They are hostile to everything that is not from there”, Erdoğan said. The blocking of Turkish ministers by the Dutch authorities last weekend was followed by protests in Rotterdam, with local police using horses and dogs to disperse demonstrators. The images were widely reported in the Turkish press and prompted an angry reaction from the government.