By Fatma Bulbul
ANKARA
Turkey's deputy prime minister said Wednesday that with U.S. President Donald Trump’s order banning entries from seven majority-Muslim countries, America is denying its own history and heritage.
"The United States is a country formed by immigrants, it formed its history like that. [The decision] amounts to a denial of its own history," Veysi Kaynak told Anadolu Agency’s Editors’ Desk in Ankara.
Trump signed an executive action last week that effectively denies entry to immigrants from seven "terror-prone" countries.
The controversial order bars citizens of Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen for a 90-day period. Syrian refugees are barred indefinitely.
Kaynak said the ban on particular countries is out of sync with the values of the modern world.
"The modern world is built on democracy, human rights, freedom and the rule of law," he added.
EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, also lashed out at the travel restrictions in the European Parliament's mini-plenary session.
"I have already made clear in the last days where the European Union stands on this. No one -- no one -- can be deprived of his or her own rights because of their place of birth, their religion, or their ethnicity," Mogherini said.
"Only respect and cooperation can make us more secure [and] ... help us manage the many crises around the world. This is the European way."
Mogherini added the EU would continue to be "a partner and a strong point of reference for all countries in the region, regardless of the religion of their citizens."
"They can count on us," she said.
Turkey's fight against terrorism
The deputy prime minister also criticized the attitude Germany and Greece have taken towards Turkey on the terrorism issue.
Kaynak said that Germany has given shelter to terrorists even during Turkey’s hour of trouble.
"The most important actors of the [July 2016] coup attempt and the judicial structure are being hosted in Germany," Kaynak said.
Several important figures of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) -- the group blamed for the defeated coup, which martyred 248 people and wounded around 2,200 others -- including prosecutors and journalists, are believed to have fled from Turkey to Germany.
Despite insistent calls by Ankara, Berlin has been reluctant so far to go after the shadowy group, arguing a lack of sufficient evidence.
In addition, the terrorist PKK has more than 14,000 followers in Germany among the Kurdish migrant population, and in 2015 raised more than €13 million ($14.3 million), according to Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence service.
The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU -- resumed its armed campaign against Turkey in July 2015 and since then has been responsible for the deaths of approximately 1,100 security personnel and civilians, including women and children.
Greece criticized
Kaynak also criticized Greece’s decision not to extradite eight fugitive ex-soldiers linked to the defeated coup.
Last week, Greece’s Supreme Court decided to not extradite any of the eight former Turkish soldiers allegedly involved in the coup attempt.
"There is no difference between Greece’s decision to not extradite the putschist soldiers who took part in the coup attempt and took Turkey's helicopters and fled to Greece, and Germany's decision not to extradite putschist judges, prosecutors, and other PKK terrorists," he added.
The ex-soldiers -- two majors, four captains, and two sergeants -- fled to Greece in a stolen Black Hawk helicopter a few hours after the coup bid was defeated in Turkey. The men were later dismissed from the military.
The ex-soldiers have been fighting extradition since they arrived in Greece and claimed asylum on July 16.
Turkey’s Justice Ministry has also asked Interpol to issue international arrest warrants for the eight former soldiers.
Istanbul prosecutors said four of the soldiers spoke by telephone the night of the failed coup to two members of a commando squad that tried to assassinate president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Greek authorities were told of the link, prosecutors said.
