President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated Saturday that Turkey might half methods with the European Union, implying that the nation is considering ending its bid to affix the 27-nation bloc.
“The EU is making efforts to sever ties with Turkey,” he advised reporters earlier than departing for the 78th UN Normal Meeting in New York.
“We are going to consider the scenario, and if wanted we’ll half methods with the EU.”
He was responding to a query a few latest report adopted by the European Parliament, which acknowledged “the accession course of can’t resume below the present circumstances, and calls on EU to discover a parallel and life like framework’ for EU-Trkiye relations.”
Turkey utilized to affix the European Union in 1999, and accession talks started in 2005. Accession negotiations had been frozen in 2018 due to “democratic backsliding,” in response to the European Parliament.
Erdogan’s assertion on Saturday got here greater than every week after Turkey’s international minister affirmed his nation’s resolve to affix the EU and urged the bloc to take brave steps to advance its bid.