Basil Hassan

Danish politicians have reacted furiously to the Turkish EU minister’s remarks criticizing Denmark’s decision to report Turkey to the EU due to an ongoing row over the release of a Danish writer’s suspected shooter.

Turkey's EU Minister and Chief Negotiator Volkan Bozkır has slammed Denmark's decision to report Turkey to the EU over the release of the suspected shooter of a Danish writer.

"The suspect has been freed with a court decision and has been disappeared. It's not right to blame Turkey," Bozkır said, speaking to reporters in Stockholm on Nov. 28, broadcaster NTV has reported.

Copenhagen is pressuring Ankara for an explanation regarding the release of the suspected shooter of a Danish writer in Turkey and conveyed the issue to the European Union, the Danish foreign minister has said.

Sixteen members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are currently imprisoned in Turkey and three of them are being tried in connection to a deadly March 20 attack in the Central Anatolian province of Niğde, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has stated.

Maintaining good relations with Turkey is more crucial for Denmark than the recent dispute between the countries that erupted after the release of the suspected shooter of a Danish writer, the country’s foreign minister has said.

The shooting suspect of a Danish writer was released in Turkey more than two months before the reported prisoner swap with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Hürriyet has learned.

The release of the shooting suspect of a right-wing writer and a critic of Islam in Denmark was not a “choice of execution power, but a ruling of the judiciary,” Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç said in a written statement on Oct. 22.