Ankara Slams French President Macron For Questioning Need To Pursue EU-Membership Talks

Ankara Slams French President Macron for Questioning Need to Pursue EU-Membership Talks

The Turkish Foreign Ministry's spokesman, Hami Aksoy, slammed on Tuesday French President Emanuel Macron for calling the country anti-European and questioning the need for continuing talks with Ankara on accession to the European Union.

ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th August, 2018) The Turkish Foreign Ministry's spokesman, Hami Aksoy, slammed on Tuesday French President Emanuel Macron for calling the country anti-European and questioning the need for continuing talks with Ankara on accession to the European Union.

On Monday, Macron said that it was necessary for France to build a strategic partnership with Russia and Turkey, however, he questioned the renewal of the EU-accession talks with Ankara while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan kept asserting a "pan-Islamist plan" that contradicted European values.

"Macron's statement demonstrated one again that despite the fact that we clarify our actions on various platforms, he is far from understanding the situation in Turkey. The claims that our country is anti-European are not true. In reality, it [Turkey] is an integral part of Europe from the political, geographical and historical points of view, and has always been fulfilling its mission for the security of the European continent," Aksoy said.

He also criticized Macron for using such terms as "Islamist" and "Islamist terror," reminding that terrorism was not related either to religion or to nationality.

According to Aksoy, the importance of Turkey to the European Union is increasing nowadays, when the international community is facing more and more threatening and unpredictable challenges.

"A more powerful, democratic and secular Turkey with a presidential system of government is seeking to advance to a full membership in the EU," Aksoy said.

In 1963, Turkey signed an agreement with the European Economic Community, the European Union's predecessor. In 1987, Ankara filed an application to become an official member of the bloc, however, the negotiations between the two sides did not begin until 2005.

The bilateral talks stalled in 2016 following an attempted coup in Turkey, which was suppressed by the authorities, who introduced a state of emergency in the country and proceeded to purges of tens of thousands of people accused of being involved in the coup. The European Union condemned Ankara's harsh reaction and said that it would not open any new areas in the EU membership negotiations.