Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says that his country’s membership in the European Union is a strategic goal but Turkey could abandon this goal if the 27-nation bloc refuses “to unblock its path for entry.”
“If the EU clears our way [for membership], we would welcome it, as the EU [membership] is our strategic goal. But if it does not, they will go their own way and we will go ours,” Turkish media quoted him as telling a meeting of the local branch of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the western province of Manisa on Sunday.
Davutoglu’s remarks follow a January statement of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he had told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Turkey could drop its EU membership goal and join the Russian-Chinese-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) instead if Ankara was invited to do so.
Erdogan made the statement because of frustration with the stalemate in the EU accession bid. Turkey opened accession negotiations with the EU in 2005 but the progress had been very slow since then due to opposition in some EU countries to Turkish accession and the Cyprus issue.
by RTT Staff Writer
via Turkey Threatens To Go Its Way If EU Accession Further Delayed.
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