President Tayyip Erdogan warned on Friday that Turkey
could open its gates for migrants to Europe if pushed by the European Union, a
day after European lawmakers voted for a temporary halt to EU membership talks
with Ankara.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a signing ceremony with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, Belarus, November 11, 2016. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko
"If you go any further, these border gates will
be opened. Neither me nor my people will be affected by these dry threats. It
wouldn't matter if all of you approved the (European parliament) vote," he
told a congress on womens' justice in Istanbul, in comments broadcast live.
Erdogan also said a controversial ruling party
proposal that could allow men accused of sexual abuse to avoid sentence was not
prepared carefully, and believed that the issue would be brought back to
parliament with a wider consensus.
The proposal would have allowed sentencing to be
indefinitely postponed in cases of sexual abuse committed "without force,
threat or deception" before Nov. 16, 2016, if the perpetrator married the
victim.
(Reporting by Daren Butler; Writing by Nick
Tattersall; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk)
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