EU envoy to Ankara resigns after criticizing Turkey over migrant deal

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Union's top diplomat in Ankara has stepped down after a row with Turkey over comments deemed as insulting by the authorities on a landmark migrant deal, his office said on Tuesday, June 14, AFP reports.

The departure of Hansjoerg Haber is indicative of the increasingly fractious relationship between Ankara and Brussels, even as both sides try and implement the landmark deal to reduce the flow of migrants to the EU.

"We confirm that the ambassador has resigned," the spokesperson told AFP.

Haber, a German diplomat who headed the EU delegation to Ankara, stepped down after he criticized the Turkish government's conduct over the implementation of the landmark deal in comments to the media.

He had only been in his post since last October.

The Turkish foreign ministry said at the time his comments caused "indignation".

Haber was bitterly critical of Turkey's conduct over the deal to reduce the number of refugees crossing the Aegean Sea to EU territory, at a meeting with some reporters on May 13, AFP says.

Haber said: "We have a saying 'Start like a Turk and end like a German. But here it is the other way round'", according to Turkish media reports.

His comments at the time were seen as deeply insulting inside Turkey, where ambassadors are generally expected to show extreme respect to Turkish culture.

Former EU affairs minister Volkan Bozkir, who was in his job at the time the comments were made, said Haber had broken "the first law of diplomacy".

"No ambassador has the right to humiliate the people of the country in which he is working or to say something about its president," he was quoted as saying by the Hurriyet daily.