Turkish diplomat’s statements cause scandal between Vienna and Ankara

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey’s ambassador in Vienna will be told that his criticism of Austrian immigration policy and his call for the United Nations to remove offices from the nation’s capital are “unacceptable,” Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Schallenberg said.

The ambassador, Kadri Tezcan, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry, Schallenberg said on November 10 in a telephone interview, Hurriyet Daily News reported. Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger has complained to his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu, he said.

Turks in Austria are treated like a virus and leaders in the nation aren’t doing enough to help the 250,000 Turkish immigrants to integrate, Tezcan said in an interview with Vienna’s Die Presse.

"When Turks apply for housing in Vienna, they're always sent to the same neighborhood. And yet, at the same time, they're accused of creating ghettos," Tezcan told the Austrian daily Die Presse in an interview published Wednesday, November 10. "You have to learn to live with others: what's Austria's problem?" he said.

Austria’s immigration system helped elevate the nationalist Freedom Party in provincial elections last month, Tezcan told the newspaper. Austria’s ministries in charge of family and social affairs should handle immigration policy instead of the Interior Ministry, he said in the article. Tezcan would advise the UN to remove its offices in Vienna, which include the International Atomic Energy Agency and the UN Industrial Development Organization, because of the country’s animosity to foreigners, Die Presse reported.

“Turks are happy people, they don’t want anything from you,” Tezcan said, according to the report. “They only want not to be treated like a virus.”