Turkish Foreign Minister Slams EU Parliament For Calling To Halt Accession Talks

Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published March 21, 2019 | 05:56 PM

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticized the European Parliament on Thursday for passing a resolution that calls to suspend Turkey's EU accession

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st March, 2019) Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticized the European Parliament on Thursday for passing a resolution that calls to suspend Turkey's EU accession.

"Unfortunately, the number of far-right members in the European Parliament is rising. Their actions are shifting the Parliament away from European values," Cavusoglu said at a press briefing.

The non-binding resolution was adopted a week ago. It was backed by 370 members of the 751-seat parliament, with 109 voting against it and 143 abstaining.

Turkey has been in off-and-on talks on joining the European Union since 2005. Brussels promised Ankara to re-energize the negotiations in return for taking back mostly Syrian migrants but a coup attempt in Turkey months later prompted a crackdown and strained its ties with the bloc.