Paris weekly editor slams Europe's refugee crisis role

By Huseyin Altinalan

ISTANBUL (AA) - Editor-in-chief of French weekly Paris Match has slammed Europe for shutting its doors to refugees, accusing the West of being prejudiced against Islam.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency Wednesday, Gilles Martin-Chauffier noted that while Turkey hosts around 3 million refugees, the EU went for an altogether different policy by shutting its borders.

"Turkey accepted around 3 million refugees, Jordan has 800,000 and Lebanon is hosting a million Syrians. On the other hand, the EU, which has a 450-million population, closed its borders," Martin-Chauffier said.

"That reveals EU's big lie," he said, adding that the refugee crisis affected domestic policies in the EU states. “When we look at Germany, we can see that the refugee issue affects their domestic policy," he said.

Chauffier, who has been strongly criticized in the French media for his opinions in favor of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said: "Europe has a refugee issue and for France, the first problem is that there are people coming to France from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia.”

He said the western world was "prejudiced" against refugees who believe in Islam.

"They are afraid of Islam. They have prejudices against it," he said.

Martin-Chauffier also said Turkey would “hurt” itself by joining the EU.

"If Turkey enters the EU, they will be the aggrieved party," he said. "Because Turkey is an industrializing country, which has a lower unemployment rate compared to the EU… Europeans would come to Turkey instead of Turks ‘invading’ Europe.

“Europeans will buy houses in Turkey and Turks will be at a disadvantage."

He added that if Turkey had been an oil-rich country, the country would have been made a part of Europe a long time ago.

"I understand that Turks see the EU as a ‘Christian club’. It really is. If Turkey was not a Muslim country, they would already be in. Christians are afraid of Muslims and that derives from a superiority complex.

"Politicians' demagogy about Turkey make people act prejudiced about the country," he added. "Westerners always think of themselves as superiors. They think their culture is the absolute."

Martin-Chauffier said if the western world would look at history, they "would see that there were more wise Muslim men in the world than in France or in Europe."

He also said there were several reasons for Europeans, especially the French people to not like Erdogan.

"They consider President Erdogan as an authoritarian. I think two things lie behind it. First of all, the European political class sees Putin and Erdogan like this, because they come from a lower class. If you have a strong standing compared to others, it disturbs them.

“However, President Erdogan is a person whose popularity has been progressively rising, and his votes have been increasing from previous years to present. He has succeeded through democratic ways, through the free will of the public and elections."