Young Turks will look after ageing Europeans: British MP

EU member countries are largely responsible for the stagnation in Turkey's accession process, according to British MP Fabian Hamilton, who also drew attention to the demographic benefits of Turkey for Europe's future. 

"Europe is aging. It will be the young Turks who look after us," Hamilton told the Hürriyet Daily News. 
The discussion about Turkey during the recent Brexit campaign in the U.K. were "appalling," added Hamilton, who was until recently Labour's shadow minister for Europe and has served as the head of the Turkish-British friendship group in parliament.

I understand you have a special connection to Turkey?

My great grandmother married my great grandfather Isaac Sevilla and had my grandmother in today's Bulgaria - we're talking about the 1860s. They moved to Istanbul when my grandmother was a child.

My father's family came from Thessalonica, the same place where Atatürk was born. When I was a child my grandmother Louise used to make delicious food. I later realized that she was cooking Turkish-style when I went to Turkey for the first time in 2002. Things like the dessert we called "sütlaç," I never knew they were actually Turkish names, so when I went to Turkey I felt at home.

What did you feel when you heard about the recent coup attempt?

I was very upset. We know that the army is the self-appointed guardian of secular Turkey and that when democracy ceases to function or Islamists become too prominent, the military steps in and says "enough," so I don't think we should be surprised given the way [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan has been going. 

But wasn't it different this time?

It was very different. I get the feeling that the coup was something Erdoğan was not...