June 24, 2016•Update: June 29, 2016
ANKARA
The U.K.’s decision to leave the EU could create a domino effect, triggering racial segregation and civil wars across Europe, Turkish EU Minister Omer Celik said Friday.
U.K.-registered voters opted to leave the EU in a historic referendum on Thursday, sparking worries across European capitals over the political future of the bloc.
Almost 52 percent of voters rejected their country's 43-year EU membership.
"This referendum could not only trigger the same exit reflex in several other countries, but it could also lead to extremely dangerous processes such as racial segregation and civil war just like we have seen long before World War II,” Celik told a news conference in the Turkish capital Ankara on Friday.
The minister said that the U.K. vote to leave the bloc was related to mainstream politicians caving to a far right movement.
"Cameron in particular failed to resist the provocative and manipulative anti-Turkey campaign of the far right, and ended up joining this campaign.
“If mainstream politicians fail to respond sensibly to far right movements, this means the involvement of the latter into mainstream politics, and the end of the European project,” he said, adding that Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-foreignism, anti-Turkey and anti-refugee movements all played a role.
"Leave" campaigners repeatedly used Turkey’s EU accession process to instill fear among voters that such a move would supposedly invite millions of migrants into the bloc, especially to the U.K.
Celik added the referendum result could lead to a second Scottish independence vote. In a September 2014 referendum, Scotland had voted to stay in the U.K. However, a majority of Scots voted Thursday in favor of the U.K. staying in the EU.
“The U.K. leaving the EU is neither good for the continent or the world. But we respect the will of the British people. This is after all their responsibility. We will be monitoring the developments,” he said.
