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EU lawmakers' vote on Turkish membership 'has no value', Erdogan says
The European Parliament will vote tomorrow on a resolution that calls on the EU to freeze accession talks with Turkey in response to Ankara’s recent crackdown on political opposition and freedom of press
Leading members of the European Parliament on Tuesday called for a halt to membership talks with Turkey because of its post-coup purges
Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan said on Wednesday that a vote by the European Parliament on whether to halt EU membership talks with Ankara "has no value in our eyes" and again accused Europe of siding with terrorist organisations.
"We have made it clear time and time again that we take care of European values more than many EU countries, but we could not see concrete support from Western friends ... None of the promises were kept," he told a Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) conference in Istanbul.
"There will be a meeting at the European Parliament tomorrow, and they will vote on EU talks with Turkey … whatever the result, this vote has no value in our eyes."
Leading members of the European Parliament on Tuesday called for a halt to membership talks with Turkey because of its post-coup purges, in which more than 125,000 state employees have been dismissed or detained.
Gianni Pitella, leader of the Progressive Alliance of the Socialists and Democrats party, had said MEPs would vote on a resolution at the plenary session in Strasbourg because “there is no alternative to these severe steps if the Turkish authority keeps neglecting and undermining democracy and rule of law.”
The vote will be held on Thursday. It is a non-binding resolution intended to put pressure on Erdoğan. Earlier this month, Erdoğan brought terrorism-related charges against at least eight Kurdish members of Turkey’s parliament.
