UPDATE - 'Anti-Turkey rhetoric in EU sabotages its future'

UPDATES WITH MORE REMARKS BY RULING PARTY SPOKESMAN

By Mumin Altas, Enes Kaplan, and Ozcan Yildirim

ANKARA (AA) - Whoever in the EU speaks against Turkey actually seeks to destroy Europe's future, the spokesman for Turkey's ruling party said on Monday.

Accusing some European leaders of taking a different approach when trying "to cause disturbances in Turkey," Justice and Development (AK) Party spokesman Omer Celik said after a meeting of the party's Central Executive Board (MYK) that these leaders "apply double standards when turmoil begins to emerge in their own countries.

As Brexit came to an end and the UK left the EU on Jan. 1, Celik said: "Europe now is a Europe that needs to establish more strategic relations with Turkey."

After a year that saw ups and downs in Turkish-EU relations, Turkish leaders recently reiterated the country's candidacy for membership in the bloc, saying that relations can improve this year if the EU takes steps that show respect for the Turkish Republic.

-Terrorism, Karabakh

On Turkey's fight against terrorism, Celik said the country made significant progress in 2020, and added that the double standards of some allied countries on terrorism were also clearly exposed.

Despite Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's calls, those countries continued to support terrorist groups, he said.

Celik derided as a "stupid joke" Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's claim that an Armenian embargo "paralyzed the Turkish economy" over Ankara's backing of Azerbaijan in the recent conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh (Upper Karabakh), which most observers says Azerbaijan won.

He said Pashinyan even offered to "help Turkey's economy recover" if it stopped supporting Azerbaijan.

New clashes erupted on Sept. 27 between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan when the Armenian army launched attacks on civilians and Azerbaijani forces and violated several humanitarian cease-fire agreements.

During the 44-day conflict, which ended in a truce on Nov. 10, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and nearly 300 settlements and villages in Karabakh from a nearly three-decade occupation.

- COVID-19 vaccine

Underlining that Turkey is beyond many countries in the procurement of COVID-19 vaccine, he said the vaccine will be put in the service of the Turkish public as soon as possible.

"It is out of the question for people getting vaccinated to immediately remove masks or ignore measures," Celik stressed.

"These measures must be followed until antibodies are formed," he said, adding that people should avoid speculations about new strains and instead follow the recommendations of the Coronavirus Advisory Board.

Last week, Turkey received some 3 million doses of CoronaVac jabs from the Chinese firm SinoVac Biotech.

Vaccinations will start after 14 days of testing the vaccine in Turkish labs, according to Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan and Sena Guler