PRESIDENT ERDOĞAN EXPECTS EU TO TAKE POSITIVE STEPS ON TÜRKIYE’S ACCESS PROCESS

Fri 14 July 2023:

After the Friday prayer, President Recep Tayyip Erdoan addressed the media in Istanbul and called the European Union and Greece to take constructive action, Anadolu Agency reported.

“We talked to the leaders of all EU member countries, with whom I had meetings in Vilnius,” Erdoğan said. “We said that we want positive steps to be taken towards Türkiye, which has been waiting at the door for 52 years now.”

Erdoğan also said that he wants to resolve the issues related to Western Thrace and the muftis with Greece. “The most important topics that I especially asked from them were the issues related to Western Thrace,” he said. “We wanted to overcome them. We wanted to overcome the issue of muftis.”

Erdoğan said that the ambassadors of the two countries will make preliminary preparations on these issues, and then the foreign ministers will meet to take the necessary steps.

EU talks frozen

Earlier on Monday, Erdogan had upped the stakes further by demanding that the European Union revive Turkey’s stalled membership bid as a condition for Sweden to join NATO.

The surprise announcement by Erdogan before departing for a NATO summit in Lithuania’s capital added new uncertainty to Sweden’s bid to become the alliance’s 32nd member.

It was the first time that Erdogan linked his country’s ambition to join the EU with Sweden’s efforts to become a NATO member.

Turkey first applied to become a member of the European Economic Community, a predecessor to the EU, in 1987.

It became an EU candidate country in 1999 and formally launched membership negotiations with the bloc in 2005.

The talks stalled in 2016 over European concerns about human rights violations in Turkey.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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