Türkiye expects EU to fulfill ‘its long-neglected obligations:’ Turkish President Erdogan

By Busra Nur Cakmak

Türkiye expects EU to fulfill “its long-neglected obligations towards our country,” said the country’s president on Tuesday.

“The increasingly complex nature of regional and global challenges indicates that there is a need, now more than ever, to advance Turkish-European Union relations on a healthy basis,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing the 78th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“We expect the European Union to swiftly start fulfilling its long-neglected obligations towards our country,” said the president.

“Especially the ambivalent attitudes towards Türkiye have to come to an end,” he added.

Türkiye applied for EU membership in 1987 and has been a candidate country since 1999.

Negotiations for full membership started in October 2005 but have stalled in recent years due to political hurdles erected by some countries.