By Sibel Morrow</p> <p>ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s foreign minister on Tuesday blasted the "hypocrisy" of European leaders for attending a summit in Egypt in the wake of last week’s executions in the country.</p> <p>"It is a double standard and hypocrisy that all EU leaders went [to Egypt] and were with [Egyptian President Abdel Fattah] al-Sisi," Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara.</p> <p>Cavusoglu's remarks came after the first EU-Arab summit opened in Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday with a high turnout from European officials despite the mass execution of nine young men in connection with a 2015 assassination.</p> <p>Citing the EU's "threatening" remarks over Turkey considering restoring capital punishment following a 2016 coup attempt, Cavusoglu accused the EU of taking an inconsistent stance after the executions in Egypt.</p> <p>The Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.</p> <p>Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.</p> <p>Cavusoglu blasted the rank hypocrisy of "the cradle of democracy," meaning the EU.
- 'They have no values'
“These countries actually have no values anymore, ” Cavusoglu said, adding that racism, xenophobia and extremism have “eroded ” what they call “common European values “.
Last week, Egyptian authorities executed nine young men convicted of assassinating Hisham Barakat, Egypt's prosecutor-general, in 2015.
Amnesty International said the men were convicted on terrorism charges after “grossly unfair trials ” marred by alleged torture.
The sentences were carried out despite calls by numerous international rights groups for a stay of execution.
Earlier this month, the Egyptian authorities executed another six people in two separate cases for the murder of a judge’s son and a senior police officer.
Egypt has remained beset by violence and turmoil since the army deposed Mohamed Morsi, the country's first freely elected president, in a 2013 coup.
