Turkey upsets EU with 'fascist' slur

(BRUSSELS) - A claim by a Turkish minister that the EU risks falling victim to "the facist methods of the 1930s" has drawn a request for clarification, the European Union said Thursday.

Ankara's minister for European Union affairs and its chief negotiator in enlargement talks with the bloc, Tegemen Bagis, said at a Holocaust commemoration at Auschwitz this week that the union was at risk from racism.

"The EU, founded in order to eliminate the threats of that period to peace, is today at risk of being overtaken by a racist mentality that... emulates the fascist methods of 1930s," he said.

"Turkish people, implicitly or openly, are being told this: 'You are different and you have no place among us'."

The commissioner for enlargement Stefan Fuele asked the minister "to explain his words," said Fuele's spokeswoman Natascha Butler.

Bagis explained that his statement aimed to highlight "the rising role of some extremist groups" in Europe which threatened to lower tolerance across the continent, she said.

Far-right Islamophobic parties have been notching up political victories across the EU recently.

Fuele was "grateful for this clarification," the spokeswoman said.

Asked whether they were misplaced, she said "the words could have been better chosen... given the timing and location."

Bagis also said that the best response to racists "would be to support and adopt the values of the European Union and principles of democracy more. The only remedy for this distorted mentality is Turkey's accession to the EU."