Turkey\u00a0has summoned Sweden\u2019s envoy in an escalating row after Stockholm accused Ankara of legalising sex with children.<\/p>\n
The dispute is the latest in several spats highlighting rising tensions between Turkey and EU states in the wake of the\u00a0botched 15 July coup\u00a0followed by a prolonged crackdown that angered Europe.<\/p>\n
Swedish foreign minister, Margot Wallstr\u00f6m, had tweeted on her official account that the \u201cTurkish decision to allow sex with children under 15 must be reversed,\u201d following a controversial ruling by the Turkish constitutional court.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a scandal for a foreign minister to post such a tweet based on false news or speculation,\u201d the Turkish foreign minister, Mevl\u00fct \u00c7avu\u015fo\u011flu, said in televised comments, adding the Swedish ambassador to Ankara had been summoned to his ministry. However, the Swedish foreign ministry said it was the charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires who was summoned by Ankara, as the ambassador was still on vacation.<\/p>\n
Turkish decision to allow sex with children under 15 must be reversed. Children need more protection, not less, against violence, sex abuse.<\/p>\n
\u00c7avu\u015fo\u011flu blasted the \u201cunacceptable\u201d tweet, saying Wallstr\u00f6m should have acted responsibly. \u201cA foreign minister should not tell lies and should not adopt an approach accusing Turkey,\u201d he said. \u201cYes to criticism but this is a slander, a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s constitutional court in July annulled a criminal code provision punishing as \u201csexual abuse\u201d all sexual acts involving children under the age of 15, responding to a petition brought by a lower court. The court has given a six-month period for parliament to draw up a new law based on its ruling.<\/p>\n
The lower court that brought the petition was worried there was no distinction between cases of sexual acts involving a young teenager or a toddler. The legal age of consent in Turkey remains 18 and was not affected by the ruling. But it drew a furious response from activists worried it would open the way for unpunished child sexual abuse.<\/p>\n
The justice ministry said in a statement that a new bill would be submitted to the parliament \u201cas soon as possible\u201d while adding the constitutional court ruling would come into effect no earlier than 11 December. \u201cBy passing new legislation by the court-imposed deadline, the Turkish government will prevent a loophole from emerging in the future,\u201d the ministry said. \u201cUnder Turkish law, all provisions related to the sexual abuse of children remain in effect. As such, the claim that the sexual abuse of children under 15 goes unpunished is completely baseless.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Twitter, Turkey\u2019s deputy prime minister, Mehmet \u015eim\u015fek, told Wallstr\u00f6m she was misinformed.<\/p>\n
The Turkish ambassador to Stockholm was due to meet the Swedish foreign minister on Monday, \u00c7avu\u015fo\u011flu said, adding he would also speak to Wallstr\u00f6m on the phone. The Swedish prime minister, Stefan L\u00f6fven told the country\u2019s news agency TT: \u201cFor our part it\u2019s important to express … what we believe in. There is no reason to back down from a view that we want to strengthen children\u2019s rights … It\u2019s important for us to have a dialogue but we have to express what we feel strongly about.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Ankara also summoned the Austrian charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires at the weekend in protest over a news ticker at Vienna airport about the age of consent controversy. The digital sign \u2013 above an arrivals board and supplied by mass-circulation daily Kronen Zeitung \u2013 said in German \u201cTurkey allows sex with children under 15\u201d.<\/p>\n
The foreign ministry expressed outrage that the airport was being abused by a \u201cdiscredited newspaper to spread its irresponsible, distorted and falsified messages in order to defame a friendly country\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u00c7avu\u015fo\u011flu\u00a0hit back, saying: \u201cIt is alarming that the slander campaign that started in Austria \u2013 the capital of racism and Islamophobia \u2013 is spreading into Sweden which is actually more sensitive on human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ties between Turkey and Austria have strained after a number of Austrian politicians spoke out against Turkey\u2019s longstanding bid to join the EU, particularly after the vast purge that followed the coup bid. Austrian defence minister, Hans Peter Doskozil has compared Turkey to a \u201cdictatorship\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Turkey\u00a0has summoned Sweden\u2019s envoy in an escalating row after Stockholm accused Ankara of legalising sex with children. The dispute is the latest in several spats highlighting rising tensions between Turkey and EU states in the wake of the\u00a0botched 15 July coup\u00a0followed by a prolonged crackdown that angered Europe. Swedish foreign minister, Margot Wallstr\u00f6m, had tweeted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news","category-world_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}