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Turkey, EU leaders to meet despite strains: minister

Xinhua, May 2, 2017 Adjust font size:

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday a Turkey-EU summit was expected to be convened, local media reported.

Cavusoglu added that the date of "a big summit" would be determined after talks with EU officials at an upcoming NATO meeting on May 24-25 in Brussels, Belgium, according to Turkey's A Haber news channel.

Some EU leaders had demanded a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the NATO summit, he said, adding that some European governments had admitted they had been wrong on Turkey.

"They understood that they were making a mistake," the minister said.

Turkey had no problems with common European values "as these are our values as well," he said, pointing out that the only problem is the EU's approach.

Erdogan said earlier that Turkey would stop pursuing EU membership if the bloc failed to open new accession chapters.

Relationship between Turkey and the EU has become strained, particularly over the Turkey's failed July 2016 coup attempt.

Several EU officials criticized Turkey's long-time emergency state and the transformation to presidential system as retreat of democracy.

Ankara is also unhappy over some European countries accepting some exiles of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Fetullah Terrorist Organization. Endit