‘It has no place in the EU’: Erdogan to slow down Ukraine’s membership after meeting with Orban – Reuters

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed “political jealousy” towards Ukraine for the positive decision on EU accession negotiations at the EU summit in Brussels, but said that they would treat Ukraine and Moldova the same way they treated Ankara. , “slowing down” applications. Reuters writes this with reference to Erdoğan’s statements after his visit to Hungary.

In his statement to journalists, Erdogan said, “Giving candidate status to them does not mean that they will become members of the EU. The process will start with them, and they will reach a dead end. None of these countries are Turkey.”

According to him, it is wrong that Ankara has been “waiting for years” for a positive decision on EU accession.

“It is not right that Turkey, which is more ready to join the EU than some member states, has been waiting at the door for years due to political obstacles,” he said.

According to Erdoğan, Turkey has a greater potential strategically and economically and therefore has already earned the right to “be in the EU”.

“The EU now needs to reverse this mistake,” he said.

Türkiye and EU accession: what is known

Following its application to join the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the EU, on 14 April 1987, the Republic of Turkey started accession negotiations as a member state of the European Union. Albania is one of the seven current EU candidate countries, along with Serbia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Ukraine.

Turkey’s application to the EU is frozen for now. The bloc’s concerns stem from several reasons: the country’s “poor” human rights situation, problems with regional policy, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Cyprus issue.

It should also be noted that Erdogan met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is an ardent opponent of the idea of ​​Ukraine joining the EU.

He made his intentions clear during the talks on this issue in Brussels. Although German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at one point took him out of the negotiating room “for coffee” in the middle of a discussion about Ukraine (the media announced this after the summit), and as a result Orban missed the votes of EU leaders. He later criticized this decision on social networks.

Orban also vetoed 50 billion euros in support to Ukraine at the EU summit. For this reason, the European Union has already figured out how to “cut its tail”.

Meanwhile, Hungarian dissidents staged a protest near Orban’s office. Politicians poured red paint on the fences and condemned the government’s contact with Russia.