If EU opposes Islamophobia, it must accept Turkey as member: Erdo?an

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has said that the European Union "must admit Turkey" as a member if it opposes Islamophobia.

Erdo?an became the first Turkish President who visited Djibouti on Jan. 24, one day after he interrupted his Horn of Africa tour to attend King Abdullah's funeral in Saudi Arabia. Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh welcomed his Turkish counterpart at the Djibouti City airport.

Turkish President, who had visited Ethiopia as the first stop of his tour, touched upon a number of foreign policy issues during his joint press conference with Guelleh, which was attended by the members of the large Turkish delegation that included cabinet members such as Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu.

Stressing that the past decade saw the deaths of thousands of Muslims in the region, Erdo?an slammed the "coup-makers" in Egypt. "3,000 Muslims were killed in one day. It is unprecedented in recent history," Erdo?an said, criticizing the Egyptian government for the crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood.

"We host 1,700,000 Syrians. We spent $5.5 billion so far," Erdo?an continued, before stressing that the international community contributed with just $250 million. "The total number of Syrian refugees in Europe is 130,000" he added. "The world watches [Syria] as a spectator. The dominant powers, the EU, they all just watch it. And whom they strike at? Muslims..."

After repeating that Turkey "will never tolerate terrorists" as they "can be from any religion," Erdo?an stepped up his rhetoric on Turkey's ongoing EU membership process. 

"It is not important whether they accept us or not. We keep up with our work. We are testing Europe. Will Europe be able to digest and to accept Turkey, whose people are...