Turkey asks EU for final decision on membership bid

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday urged the European Union (EU) to give its final decision on Turkey's decades-long bid to join the bloc.

"They shamelessly say that Turkey's EU negotiations should be reviewed," Erdogan said at an international business forum in Istanbul.

"You are late," he said of the EU. "Review it as soon as possible. But do not just review, make your final decision."

The president was responding to the bloc's call for a "review" of Turkey's accession negotiations in the wake of the arrest of the co-chairs and seven other lawmakers of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party last Friday.

The EU countries have also been increasingly critical of Anraka's arrest of journalists and closure of opposition media outlets in an ongoing crackdown launched after a failed coup in July.

In his speech, Erdogan also called on the EU countries to open their doors to the refugees fleeing from terrorism in the region, "rather than providing refuge to terrorists" from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and other Syrian Kurdish groups outlawed by Turkey.

Ankara has blasted what it called EU's "double standards," as politicians from the bloc have targeted Turkey's counterterrorism strategy and its battle against the PKK, which was listed as a terror group by the union and the United States as well.

The European Commission is expected to unveil its annual report on Turkey's progress toward EU membership on Wednesday.

Turkey applied to join the bloc in 1987 while the negotiations began in 2005. Endit