{"id":7311,"date":"2018-02-04T15:33:01","date_gmt":"2018-02-04T15:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=7311"},"modified":"2018-02-04T15:33:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-04T15:33:01","slug":"erdogan-rejects-option-of-partnership-with-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/erdogan-rejects-option-of-partnership-with-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"Erdogan rejects option of partnership with EU"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-3537\" src=\"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Erdugan.jpg\" alt=\"Erdugan\" width=\"346\" height=\"209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Erdugan.jpg 580w, https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Erdugan-300x181.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px\" \/>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected proposals of a partnership with the EU, insisting full membership to the bloc is the only option, in an interview published Sunday.<br \/>\nHosting Erdogan on a visit to Paris in January, French President Emmanuel Macron said it was \u201chypocrisy\u201d to say progress could be made on Turkish EU membership, floating the idea of a partnership instead.<br \/>\nThe EU must \u201ckeep its promises\u201d to Turkey, Erdogan told Italy\u2019s Stampa newspaper, ahead of his arrival in Rome on Sunday evening for a 24-hour visit.<br \/>\n\u201cThe EU is blocking access to negotiations and suggests that lack of progress is because of us. It\u2019s unfair. Just like it is that other countries are pushing for options other than membership,\u201d he said.<br \/>\n\u201cWe want full membership. Other options are not satisfactory,\u201d he added.<br \/>\nHe stressed the country\u2019s \u201cimportant\u201d role stemming the flow of migrants to Europe, which he said offered \u201csecurity and stability\u201d to the continent.<br \/>\nTurkish ambitions to join the EU date back over half a century but accession talks started in October 2005.<br \/>\nOut of the total of 35 chapters needed to be closed to join the EU, 16 have been opened with just one closed. No new chapter has been opened since financial and budgetary provisions was opened in June 2016.<br \/>\nThe Turkish leader also defended his recently-launched \u201cOlive Branch\u201d operation in the northern Syrian region of Afrin, fighting Syrian Kurdish People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG) militia which Ankara sees as a terror group.<br \/>\n\u201cThe Turkish armed forces are not in Afrin to fight armed Kurdish groups. We don\u2019t have problems with the Kurdish Syrians, we are only fighting terrorists, and we have the right to do it,\u201d insisted Erdogan, repeating that Turkey was not seeking territorial gains.<br \/>\nErdogan\u2019s flying visit to Italy will include a meeting with his Italian counterpart Italian Sergio Mattarella.<br \/>\nHe will also be the first Turkish president to visit the Vatican in 59 years, where he will thank Pope Francis for challenging US President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a city also claimed by Palestinians.<\/p>\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\r\n<script>(function(d, s, id) {\r\n  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\r\n  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\r\n  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\r\n  js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_GB\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\r\n  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\r\n}(document, \"script\", \"facebook-jssdk\"));<\/script>\r\n <fb:comments href=\"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/erdogan-rejects-option-of-partnership-with-eu\/\" font=\"arial\" num_posts=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" colorscheme=\"light\"  style=\"background:#FFFFFF;padding-top:0px;\r\npadding-right:0px;\r\npadding-bottom:0px;\r\npadding-left:0px;\r\nmargin-top:0px;\r\nmargin-right:0px;\r\nmargin-bottom:0px;\r\nmargin-left:0px;\r\n\"><\/fb:comments>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected proposals of a partnership with the EU, insisting full membership to the bloc is the only option, in an interview published Sunday. Hosting Erdogan on a visit to Paris in January, French President Emmanuel Macron said it was \u201chypocrisy\u201d to say progress could be made on Turkish EU &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7311"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7312,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7311\/revisions\/7312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}