Turkey ‘no longer expects anything from EU’, says Erdogan on membership

A visibly livid Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, lambasted the European Union on Sunday (Oct 1) over, what he claims, hurdles being created to prevent the country from joining the bloc.

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Before the inaugural session of the parliament, Erdogan said he “no longer expects anything from the European Union, which has kept us waiting at its door for 40 years”.

“We have kept all the promises we have made to the EU but they have kept almost none of theirs,” he added, AFP reported.

The 69-year-old Turkish leader further said that he would not “tolerate any new demands or conditions on the accession process” for his country to join the bloc.

Tensions after ECHR ruling

His remarks come in the wake of a judgement by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday that condemned Ankara for convicting a teacher for his alleged role in the 2016 attempted coup on the grounds he had downloaded an encrypted messaging app linked with the alleged plotters.

The ECHR argued that the court’s ruling could be applied to thousands of other Turks who were jailed following a failed coup attempt in 2016.

On Tuesday, the Strasbourg court ruled that the former teacher Yuksel Yalcinkay’s rights were violated in three instances: Article 6, article 7 and article 11 on freedom of assembly and association.

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In its ruling, the ECHR said Turkey’s conviction of Yalcinkaya was “based decisively” on his alleged use of ByLock, an encrypted messaging system that Turkish courts have said was designed for use by Gulen followers.

Turkey angry at interference 

Turkey blames a group led by the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen for being behind the failed attempt to oust Erdogan.

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Erdogan said that the “decision of the ECHR was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Earlier, Turkish Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç dismissed the ECHR’s decision.

“It is unacceptable for the ECtHR to overstep its jurisdiction and issue a judgement of violation by examining the evidence in a case where our judicial authorities at all levels have deemed the evidence sufficient,” the minister said on X.

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