![\"carl\"](\"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/carl.jpg\")
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Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt delivered a scathing critique of the European Union\u2019s reaction to the failed coup attempt in Turkey, asking whether Brussels was \u201casleep or just ignorant?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n In his column for Politico titled ‘Europe, Stand up for Erdogan’, Bildt said EU leaders had \u201cresponded tepidly\u201d to July’s attempted coup, which Turkey has repeatedly said was carried out by supporters of US-based Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) leader Fethullah Gulen.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no sign of senior EU representatives afterwards flying [to] Turkey in support of an accession country facing the gravest threat to its constitutional order yet,\u201d Bildt wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead, Europe\u2019s leaders immediately began to question measures taken by the Turkish authorities to cleanse from power any elements thought to be associated with the Gulen movement.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Turkey asked for derogation from the European Convention on Human Rights, EU leaders howled with disapproval, forgetting that France did the same after the November terror attacks in Paris. There is no question that Turkey has the right to, and indeed must, take measures to safeguard itself against forces trying to topple its constitutional order,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Bildt, who served as prime minister from 1991 to 1994 and as foreign minister from 2006 to 2014, underlined that a successful coup would have resulted in \u201cmajor bloodshed on the streets of Ankara and Istanbul as coup forces tried to suppress opposition demonstrations.\u201d According to Bildt, the outbreak of a full-blown civil war was also a possibility.<\/p>\n He said the ensuing chaos would have resulted on more disruption throughout Europe.<\/p>\n \u201cMillions of Turkish citizens fleeing violence, chaos and death would have joined the more than 2 million Syrian refugees hosted in Turkey in setting sail for Europe. The EU would now be facing a refugee disaster of even larger magnitude than in 2015,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Bildt, who is also the co-chairman of the European Council on Foreign Relations also said Europe risked \u201closing its moral authority if it does not appear particularly engaged in dealing with the coup itself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe EU would be in a far better position today if EU leaders had gone to Turkey immediately to express their horror at the coup, congratulate the people of Turkey for defeating it and sit down with the president, the government, the leaders in the Grand National Assembly and others to discuss how to collectively ensure a democratic and European path for Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n Source: TRTWorld and agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt delivered a scathing critique of the European Union\u2019s reaction to the failed coup attempt in Turkey, asking whether Brussels was \u201casleep or just ignorant?\u201d In his column for Politico titled ‘Europe, Stand up for Erdogan’, Bildt said EU leaders had \u201cresponded tepidly\u201d to July’s attempted coup, which Turkey has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[481,195,70],"class_list":["post-3655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","tag-carl-bildt","tag-europe","tag-turkey"],"views":907,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3657,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3655\/revisions\/3657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}