What's behind the embarrassing shenanigans of the Justice and Development Party (AKP)? What's the reason for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's angry outbursts?

On March 22, just a few hours before the London terror attack, Erdogan appeared on live television and harshly criticized the West. He said, “Turkey is not a country you can pull and push around, not a country whose pride you can play with and turn its ministers away from the border. [It's] not a country whose citizens you can drag on the ground. These developments are carefully followed around the world. If Europe continues this way, no European in any part of the world can walk safely on the streets. If you open this route, you [the West] will suffer the most.”

Yet when Reuters tweeted Erdogan’s statement after the attack, the pro-AKP newspaper Yeni Akit expressed its outrage and claimed that Reuters was insinuating that Erdogan was responsible for the attack.

This was just the latest mind-boggling and erratic act from the AKP and its ultranationalist coalition, which continues to rage against the West, in particular the European Union. Al-Monitor has reported on the details of the intense row between Turkey and the Netherlands and Germany.