THE SUNDAY TIMES: The country's government is considering referring the party to the police over racist promotional material
The Turkish government has demanded the withdrawal of election leaflets distributed in Scotland by the British National party, claiming they are intended to incite racial and religious hatred.
Flyers promoting the BNP’s European election campaign suggest that millions of Turkish Muslims would flood into Britain if the country were to be granted full EU membership.
One BNP leaflet being handed out on the streets of Glasgow said taxpayers’ money “shouldn’t be wasted on expanding Europe so that millions of Muslims in Turkey can join the invasion of foreign job snatchers”.
Another urges voters to “oppose the dangerous drive backed by the other main parties to give 80m low-wage Muslim Turks the right to swamp Britain”.
Officials at the Turkish embassy in London have complained to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and have suggested the matter be referred to the police because the leaflets potentially breach race relations legislation.
“It is obvious that these are racist and highly inflammatory statements which insult both Turkey and the Turkish nation as a whole and put hundreds of thousands of Turks and Turkish Cypriots who live and have been born in Britain at risk of racist abuse and attacks,” said Orhan Tung, a spokesman for the embassy.
“I think the leaflets are a clear breach of both the Race Relations Act and the Racial and Religious [Hatred] Act, which makes it an offence to distribute written material with the intent to stir up religious or racial hatred.
“We believe that the relevant British authorities such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission should consider taking legal action against the party in question.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission also criticised the material and warned that Scotland needed immigration to counter the effects of an ageing declining population. >>> Jason Allardyce | Sunday, May 24, 2009
BNP: BNP Counterattacks with Hard-Hitting Turkey ‘Not in the EU’ Leaflet
The British National Party has responded to the disgraceful attempt by the Turkish government to interfere in British elections with a hard-hitting leaflet opposing that country’s entry into the EU. Under the heading “If you want Turkey for a neighbour, vote Tory, Lib or Labour”, the leaflet calls on British people not to holiday or in any way support Turkey.
The full text reads as follows: “Stop Turkey entering the EU and don’t let them tell you how to vote,” the leaflet starts, referring to the attempt last week by the Turkish embassy to get a BNP election leaflet banned.
“What a nerve! Turkey is a state where the army commanders threaten to grab power whenever a party which they don’t like is set to win an election. Turkey throws people into prison for writing about the brutal genocide of more than a million Christians by the Turkish army in 1915 — the same time they were raping and murdering thousands of British POWs on the Kut Death March. >>> BNP News | Sunday, May 31, 2009
BNP: BNP Protests against Turkish Interference in Election
British National Party activists in London demonstrated today outside the Turkish embassy in Belgrave Square against that government’s attempted interference in the European election on Thursday.
The BNP delegation took advantage of the sunny weather to peacefully demonstrate their opposition to last week’s call by the Turkish embassy for the BNP’s election leaflet to be banned and for the party to be criminally prosecuted.
The ‘offending’ part of the BNP’s leaflet warned against Turkey becoming a member of the European Union which would result in millions of low wage Turks being able to flood Europe and Britain, further exacerbating the problems already caused by the EU’s ‘freedom of movement’ regulations.
The BNP is the only political party campaigning against Turkish membership of the EU. All the other parties have declared themselves in favour of Turkish membership. >>> BNP News | Tuesday, June 02, 2009
