EU criticizes Turkey but not ready to halt membership talks

“Then we could go to our people”, Erdoğan said in Ankara, at a meeting on the national agriculture project.

Cavusoglu’s blunt comments, made as visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier looked on, also highlighted Turkey’s frustration with the fact that, after 11 years of negotiations, its prospects of joining the European Union look more remote than ever.

A discussion on Ankara’s membership bid is not due until December.

Instead of acknowledging his stance on Turkey during the referendum campaign, Mr Johnson hit back at his fellow foreign ministers and accused them of “overreacting”. Government officials in Ankara believe Gulen’s followers incited the July coup, PressTV reported.

Diplomats said Johnson spoke out during Monday’s discussions for a transactional relationship with Turkey, which some took as meaning he thought human rights were of secondary importance. Yildirim said. “EU ambassadors can not decide how the law will work in Turkey”. “I personally favor a good and close cooperation based on trust”.

On 29 October, the US updated its travel advice to Turkey after ordering the departure of family members of employees posted to the US Consulate General in Istanbul. “You say “we’ll stop the accession talks”, well, you are late. We should not overreact”.

Turkey first applied to become a member of the European Union in 1987, but the formal accession talks started only in 2005, with the negotiations bogged down in a number of disputes including Ankara’s deteriorating human rights record. Last year, around 58% of FDI inflows into Turkey originated from the EU. Ankara promised it would assist the European Union in dealing with the influx of refugees and migrants, in exchange for multibillion-euro funding as well as the potential facilitation of European Union accession and visa-free travel within the Schengen zone for Turkish citizens.

Reports suggest that Austria wanted to end the membership talks, but Germany and France, the bloc’s heavyweights, disagreed.

Member states fear a collapse of the migration deal could lead to a new surge in refugees and economic migrants after more than 1mn people reached the continent previous year.

Turkey is heading to a referendum on granting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan new powers as early as next spring, ratcheting up tensions amid a crackdown on dissent and pro-Kurdish politicians, analysts say. Under the same auspices, Ankara has silenced dissident voices in the press and shuttered leading news outlets.

More than 100 journalists are in jail.