Erdoğan threatens to ‘separate’ from EU after critical European Parliament report – POLITICO

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday criticized a European Parliament report on the country’s EU membership negotiations and threatened to “separate” from the bloc.

Asked by journalists about the report, Erdoğan said “the EU is trying to separate itself from Turkey,” according to Turkish state media Anadolu Agency.

“We will make our assessments in relation to these developments and if necessary, we can separate from the EU,” Erdoğan said before his trip to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The European Parliament’s report, adopted this week in Strasbourg, says negotiations on Ankara’s membership in the bloc should not resume under current circumstances, expressing EU concerns over human rights violations and the rule of law. European lawmakers instead advocated finding “a parallel and realistic framework” for relations between Brussels and Ankara.

“We have recently seen a renewed interest from the Turkish government to restart the EU accession process,” said the file’s lead lawmaker, Spanish socialist Nacho Sánchez Amor, during the adoption of the report on Wednesday.

“This will not happen because of geopolitical horse-trading, but only when the Turkish authorities show a real interest in putting an end to the continued rollback of fundamental freedoms and the rule of law in the country,” Sánchez Amor said.

Relations between Turkey and the EU have deteriorated due to Erdoğan’s increasingly autocratic behavior following the failed coup attempt in 2016.

Negotiations on Turkey’s membership in the bloc have stagnated for years. In July, however, EU foreign ministers agreed to move their relationship forward.