Austria – Turkey – EU – Politics

Austria Pushes EU to End Turkey Membership Talks

Austria Pushes EU to End Turkey Membership Talks
Thu Aug 4, 2016 17:36:03

Austria’s government said Thursday that Turkey is unfit to join the European Union in the wake of the recent post-coup crackdown, calling for the bloc to discuss ending membership talks.

Turkey’s longstanding, and recently revived, bid to join the EU has already been hit by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s suggestion that he may reintroduce the death penalty after the July 15 attempted putsch.

“We have to face reality: the membership negotiations are currently no more than fiction,” Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern told the Die Presse newspaper in comments published Thursday.

“We know that Turkey’s democratic standards are far from sufficient to justify its accession.”

Asked by public broadcaster ORF whether he wanted to halt the talks, Kern said he would initiate a debate on the matter at a summit of leaders on September 16.

Austrian Defense Minister Hans-Peter Doskozil meanwhile compared Turkey to a “dictatorship,” adding that “such a state has no place in the EU.”

“The time has come to ... clearly say that the EU’s negotiations with Turkey have to be suspended or ended,” Doskozil told the Austria Press Agency in an interview published Thursday; AFP reported.

S/SH 11

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