Turkish Foreign Minister Reveals Who's to Blame for West 'Losing' Turkey

The Western governments risk jeopardizing relations with Turkey due to their own mistakes and not because of Ankara’s new foreign policy vector, according to Mevlet Cavusoglu.

If the West were to "lose" Turkey, it would happen because of the mistakes it made, not because of Ankara’s relations with Moscow and Beijing, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlet Cavusoglu said, according to the Anadolu Agency.

"If the West loses Turkey, the relations with Russia and China would have nothing to do with it. It (the West) will lose Turkey because of its own mistakes," Cavusoglu said.

Earlier, Brussels’ criticism of Ankara for implementing a state of emergency following the recent coup attempt and threats of suspending talks on Turkey’s accession to the EU if the Turkish government reintroduces death penalty, prompted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to decry the European Union’s actions as dishonest.

"The EU is making some very serious mistakes, including those related to the support of the coup attempt," Cavusoglu remarked.

The unsuccessful coup d’état attempt that took place in Turkey on July 15 had apparently prompted the country’s leadership to reconsider its foreign policy agenda and, among other things, actively seek to mitigate the crisis in relations with Russia triggered by the downing of a Russian warplane in Syrian airspace by Turkish fighter jet in November 2015.

As a result, during a meeting that took place on August 9 Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that both countries were ready to restore relations and enhance economic and political cooperation.