‘EU blackmails Turkey over membership bid’ tells minister Çelik to FT
In an interview held on Thursday (September 14) with Financial Times’ Tony Blair, Turkey’s minister responsible for EU relations, Ömer Çelik, accused EU of ‘blackmailing Turkey over its membership bid’.
Saying Brussels has not kept its promises to Turkey regarding the deal on refugee crisis, Çelik said: “Using the EU negotiating process as a way to blackmail Turkey is weakening and discrediting the EU institutions,” as Blair reported.
While criticizing the EU states, minister Çelik praised UK as ‘a real ally and a role model’ and added that other states’ aim has been to ‘find tools to blackmail Turkey’.