Will keep up Nazi taunts if I am called dictator, says Tayyip Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will keep up his "Nazi" taunts targeting European leaders as long as they keep on calling him a "dictator". "How does that work, you have the right to call Erdogan a dictator but Erdogan doesn't have the right to call you fascist and Nazi?" he said during an interview with the CNN-Turk and Kanal D television channels. Relations between Turkey and Europe have been severely strained since Turkish ministers were thwarted from campaigning on the continent for a 'yes' vote in next month's referendum on expanding Erdogan's powers.

Ankara has said such behaviour was reminiscent of Nazi Germany and also raised alarm over what it sees as rising racism and Islamophobia. Germany on Monday branded as "unacceptable" Erdogan's charge that chancellor Angela Merkel was using "Nazi measures", but signalled it wanted to avoid escalating the feud.

Erdogan, who has also taken similar aim at the Netherlands, did not sound conciliatory. "They accuse me then they speak of Erdogan as a dictator," he continued, still referring to himself in the third person. "So I'll continue to address them in these terms," he added. Erdogan again denounced the cancellation of his ministers' trips to European countries with a large Turkish diaspora ahead of the referendum.