EU Stresses Human Rights In Talks With Turkey's Erdogan

Sumaira FH Published May 25, 2017 | 06:50 PM

BRUSSELS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th May, 2017 ) : EU Council President Donald Tusk on Thursday stressed the importance of human rights in talks with Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, amid tensions over Ankara's long-delayed EU accession process.

Tusk, who heads the European Council of 28 EU member state leaders, and European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker met the Turkish president ahead of a NATO summit in Brussels. "I put the question of human rights in the centre of our discussions," Tusk tweeted after the talks, which began with a brief and cordial handshake for photographers.

A spokesman for Juncker said: "The EU and Turkey must and will continue to cooperate.

Major issues of common interest were discussed in detail in a good and constructive atmosphere." At another meeting on the margins of the NATO summit, Erdogan promised French President Emmanuel Macron he would "rapidly" look into the case of jailed French photojournalist Mathias Depardon, Macron's office said.

According to the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Depardon, who has been held in Turkey for over two weeks, has begun a hunger strike. The Turkish authorities have said he was detained over "propaganda for a terror group" -- a reference to outlawed Kurdish militants.