FM : Turkish citizens less willing to join EU

By Azernews

By Kamila Aliyeva

Turkish citizens are showing less support for the country’s entry into the European Union – Ankara’s long-lasting goal.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that the number of supporters of the country's accession to the EU among Turkish citizens has fallen significantly.

"The support of the Turkish people for the idea of joining the EU has seriously dropped. We are against double standards in Europe towards us. We have our own security tasks that we will carry out. There were six demands from the EU - we fulfilled all of them. But now the EU suddenly started talking quite different things," he said in an interview with Anadolu Agency on October 3.

He added that Turkey is ready to work on joining the EU, but the EU should take a step forward.

Previously, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan informed the Parliament that the country doesn’t “need EU membership anymore.”

Still, the Turkish leader has not completely ruled out the idea of membership. He said Turkey is willing to become an EU member but only as a proper constitution of the union.

The future of Turkey’s EU membership talks has become a hot topic for discussion amid rising tensions between Ankara and Brussels.

Turkey’s accession negotiations started in 2005, but until Turkey agrees to apply the Additional Protocol of the Ankara Association Agreement to Cyprus, eight negotiation chapters will not be opened and no chapter will be provisionally closed. The talks have reached a deadlock in 2007 as Turkey was not ready to change its position on Cyprus while German and French governments also opposed the country’s full EU membership.

Turkey’s ties with the EU have worsened last July after a failed coup attempt. Ankara also criticized Germany, Belgium and several other European countries for turning a blind eye to outlawed groups and terrorist organizations hostile to Turkey.

European officials have repeatedly questioned widespread investigations by the Turkish authorities into the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), which Ankara accuses of having organized the defeated military coup attempt.

However, Ankara insists it is acting to maintain security in the country, which has seen hundreds of its citizens killed in terrorist attacks by different groups over the past years.

Relations further deteriorated following an April referendum which expanded the powers of the president. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's (PACE) recent decision to reopen a political monitoring process against Turkey also negatively affected Ankara-Brussels ties.