LJUBIJANA, SLOVENIA

With the war in Ukraine, Europe now faces "a great fire," the Turkish parliament speaker said on Tuesday.   

"What are we doing here, in Slovenia, at the conference of speakers of EU parliaments, while there's a great fire and great crisis in Ukraine, while a great humanitarian tragedy is being experienced, and a great fire, a great migration wave has come to Europe's door?" Mustafa Sentop asked at the meeting in the capital, Ljubljana. 

“The crisis, the war in Ukraine is threatening our region, threatening Europe, threatening the entire world,” he said. 

Saying that “a big economic crisis awaits us in many areas,” Sentop said such crisis could be prevented. 

He said the current crisis would not have happened if all “aimed for strategic approaches that would have preserved international law, justice in the real sense, and world peace.”  

“The Ukraine crisis would not have emerged had international law, human rights, and democracies been defended in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and earlier in Central and Southern America,” Turkish parliament speaker stated. 

‘EU in state of weakness’ 

Sentop also cited the Russo-Georgian diplomatic crisis in 2008 as well as the Crimea issue in 2014, saying that “present-day predicament” if countries had taken determined and effective steps then.  

“The European Union is in a state of weakness in terms of strategic thinking, seeing what is important, and being able to anticipate the future,” he noted. 

On talks between Russia and Ukraine held in Istanbul on Tuesday, Sentop criticized EU member countries for failing to prevent the war, adding that the bloc had fallen short in its strategic thinking, prioritization, and predictions. 

"We are faced with a European Union that ... is held hostage to the simple whims of a few small countries, instead of robust and comprehensive perspectives on the future, and has failed to include nations that have vast geo-strategic significance and weight, like Turkiye and Ukraine." 

He blasted on EU member states over providing opinions on Ukraine but questioned those words helping to “stop the war, end the humanitarian tragedy, in a realistic way that will lead to results?” 

Citing Ukraine President Volodmyr Zelenskyy’s addresses to European parliaments, Sentop said “You really do appreciate him. Does it help at all? Ukraine and Zelenskyy do not believe either that these will help at all.”  

“War has arrived at the doorstep of Europe,” he warned and criticized EU over its biased approach on migrants arriving at its borders saying that they “…have turned the Mediterranean into a graveyard of immigrants. Now, yet a bigger wave of migration is at the doorsteps of all of us.” 

He slammed the declaration that the conference is planning to release as an "unfair, cruel" jab at Turkiye. 

Future of EU is together with Turkiye 

Sentop underlined that the latest talks in Istanbul indicated that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's intense diplomatic efforts are paying off. 

"Turkiye is fulfilling its mission of mediation as a country that both Ukraine and Russia trust to be honest and fair," he said, underlining that Ankara is "working hard to stop this great fire." 

Sentop described the declaration as an attempt to slander Turkiye with an unjust, ruthless, allegedly bossy approach. 

“Turkiye has not acquired its current strength and reputation as a member of the EU. Indeed, lions do not need to roam with the pack,” he said. 

Turkish official further expressed his country’s belief in EU membership process to be developed with rational approaches, “compatible with the realities of Europe, our region, and the world, in a manner that is free of prejudices and double standards.”  

“The future of Europe and the EU is together with Turkiye,” he added. 

Sentop also lambasted against his Greek counterpart saying that he has rebuked Turkiye with a provocative approach. 

“This is a long-established custom of Greek politicians,” he said. 

Reminding that Turkiye is a guarantor country in island of Cyprus along with the United Kingdom and Greece, Sentop said: “Greece massacred Turks from 1962 to 1974 in order to turn Cyprus into a Greek island, according to the London and Zürich Agreements of 1959.” 

He stressed that “despite Greece’s adversaries approach towards Turkiye, and despite the fact that it has made it a principle to not comply with international agreements” Ankara  allowed Athens to rejoin the NATO alliance in 1980 and “it has not exercised its veto power.” 

“Why, because Turkiye has always good intentions,” he reminded. 

Having arrived in the Slovenian capital on Sunday night, Sentop is set to meet with the country's National Council President Alojz Kovsca. 

On Monday, Sentop held talks with top Slovenian officials, including President Borut Pahor, Prime Minister Janez Jansa, and Igor Zorcic, the speaker of Slovenia’s National Assembly. 

The Ukraine crisis and Ankara's push for peace were on the agenda.