Turkey’s president said Ukraine and Moldova are “not as ready to become members of the European Union” as his country.
Turkey should be “more willing to become a member of the European Union than Ukraine and Moldova,” with which the bloc’s leaders agreed last week to begin accession negotiations. This was said by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Anadolu and Reuters news agencies reported.
After his visit to Hungary, the Turkish leader, speaking to journalists, emphasized that the European Union needs to “carefully evaluate” Ankara’s position in the future. According to him, it is wrong to force Turkey to wait for many years “at the door of the EU”, and blames “political obstacles” for this.
“Turkey’s strategic and economic potential shows that it has already achieved full membership in the EU, but we have been distracted for years by various details… Now the EU must leave the this mistake,” Erdogan said.
Erdogan believes that Ukraine and Moldova are “not yet ready to become members of the European Union” compared to Turkey which has been a candidate for the bloc since 2005, but is still not a member of the EU.
“Giving them candidate status does not mean that they will become members of the EU. The process will start with them, they will also stop. Turkey is not among these countries,” the Turkish leader is convinced.
Erdogan concluded his speech with the statement: “It is wrong that Turkey, which is more ready to join the EU than some member states, has been kept waiting at the door for years because of political obstacles.”
Let’s recall that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who came to Budapest on a visit, exchanged gifts.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.