President Tayyip Erdogan said that Türkiye could “part ways” with the European Union if necessary with its hopes to join stalling amid criticism of Ankara’s efforts to address democracy and rule of law concerns.
He secured a pledge from Brussels to resurrect the membership talks first started in 2005 in exchange for lifting its blockade of Sweden’s drive to join the NATO military alliance in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine.
Earlier this month, the EU’s enlargement commissioner Oliver Varhelyi traveled to Türkiye, saying that while membership had “huge potential”, the bloc needed to see action on human rights issues before talks resume.
