Ankara: linking relations between Turkey and EU with Cyprus is unacceptable

Ankara will never accept an approach that links progress in relations between Turkey and the EU with the Cyprus issue. This is stated in the statement of the Turkish Foreign Ministry following the results of a special meeting of the European Council, held in Brussels on April 17-18.

“It is necessary to abandon the vision, which reduces the multifaceted relations of Turkey and the EU to the Cyprus issue. Such thinking cannot make a positive and constructive contribution to the solution of this problem, or to the solution of other regional and global issues,” the report said.

The department noted that the decisions made at the meeting in Turkey are another example of the EU lack of strategic vision against Ankara and global events.

The Foreign Ministry called the “serious inconsistency” the fact of failure to rejuvenate a specific decision on the recommendations contained in a joint statement on the relations of the EU and Turkey, prepared by the head of the Euro -Diplomita Josep Borrel and the European Commission.

The diplomatic mission also emphasized that Türkiye, like a candidate country, remains committed to EU membership. “However, we reject the selective restriction of bilateral cooperation with certain areas,” the Foreign Ministry said in the Foreign Ministry.

It is emphasized that Ankara intends to conduct a dialogue with the EU as part of reciprocity and depending on the pace, level and scale of the European Union steps in relation to Turkey.