Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu—a well-known critic of Washington who previously accused it of orchestrating the 2016 coup d’état attempt against President Tayyip Erdogan—has leveled exceptionally harsh criticism against the collective West, saying, among other things, that the entire world hates the United States while suggesting that Europe is little more than a pawn of the U.S.
The interior minister’s statements, delivered on Tuesday, April 18th in front of a room full of young people at Topkapi Social Facilities in Fatih, Istanbul, are reflective of what appears to be a growing counter-American sentiment across certain segments of the international community, the Turkish daily newspaper DokuzEylul Gazette reports.
Soylu accused the collective West of cultural imperialism, telling the crowd that they’re trying to impose culture and habits on the world and working to create a uniform human being. “We are facing cultural terrorism,” he began. “We are facing cultural terrorism that aims to destroy our family structure, morality, elder, young, civilization, history, religion, values of belief, tradition, and what our mothers and fathers have taught us.”
The Turkish minister’s biting criticism did not end there, however. In an attempt to underscore what he regards as a growing perception that the United States has lost—and continues to lose—much of its credibility on the world stage, Soylu boldly claimed that “the whole world hates America.”
Switching gears, Soylu set his sights on Europe, claiming that its leaders have lost their credibility due to their lack of strategic autonomy from the United States. He also downplayed Europe’s significance on the world stage, highlighting that the continent’s population is aging and its economic output is not what it once was.
“There is no such thing as Europe. There is America. Europe is a trend in the Americas column. They are nothing special,” Soylu claimed, implying that the policies adopted and the actions taken by Europe’s leaders are driven principally by U.S. interests rather than its own.
Soylu’s remarks come two months after he accused the U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Jeffry Flake of plotting against Turkey.
He said:
Every U.S. ambassador who arrives in Turkey is hurrying to find out how to make a coup possible in Turkey. I address the U.S. ambassador from here. I know the journalists you made write articles. Take your dirty hands off Turkey. I’m being very clear. I very well know how you would like to create strife in Turkey. Take your grinning face off from Turkey.
What the interior minister’s anti-American rhetoric and dismissal of European importance will mean for Turkey’s relationship with the United States and Europe remains to be seen.
