In the joint press statement issued by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini and Commissioner Johannes Hahn yesterday (13 March) regarding the recent tensions between Turkey and certain EU Member States, we see that there are incorrect assessments and that different agenda items are merged wrongly in order to misconstrue perceptions.

The EU should realize that the statement fuels extremism, such as xenophobia and anti-Turkish sentiments because the call to refrain from excessive statements and actions that risk further exacerbating the situation is made only to Turkey, instead of the countries that caused this situation by violating diplomatic conventions and international law.

The EU has once again acted in a far from objective manner and without thoroughly assessing the developments, as in the statements issued after the heinous coup attempt of 15 July and the attacks carried out by PKK which is on the EU terrorist organization list.

Instead of giving a strong message to the member states that have violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (1963) as well as fundamental human rights, the obligations arising from the European Convention on Human Rights and their international responsibilities, the EU's protectionist attitude that hides behind member state solidarity and stands with the Netherlands, which has clearly violated human rights and European values, is extremely grave.

Our EU counterparts only selectively apply democratic values, fundamental rights and freedoms and while recommending dialogue channels for resolving problems, prefer to ignore our policy pursued within the limits of diplomacy and law, unlike the Netherlands.

For all these reasons, the EU's short-sighted statement has no value for us.