Erdogan piles pressure on EU over accession talks

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to throw open his country’s borders with Europe in response to the European Parliament’s vote to freeze membership talks with Ankara.

Addressing the EU in a speech in Istanbul he said: “Listen to me. If you go any further, then the frontiers will be opened, bear that in mind.”

Yesterday the European Parliament voted in support of an “advisory” motion calling for a freeze on the bloc’s long-stalled membership talks with Turkey, citing “disproportionate, repressive measures” taken by Erdogan’s government against those it blames for the botched coup in July this year.

The motion was passed by 479 to 37, although the vote is non-binding and unlikely to be taken up by the European Commission and the governments of member states.

Under the deal struck on 18 March between Ankara and Brussels, Turkey agreed to halt the flow of migrants and refugees to Europe and step up maritime and land border controls in exchange for incentives on its membership bid.

These included visa-free travel for its citizens and an acceleration of accession talks.

However, with an October target passing, no apparent progress on the visa issue and the talks stalled, Ankara has accused the EU of not keeping its side of the bargain. Erdogan said that the EU had cried out for help in 2015, as tens of thousands of migrants massed at the border crossing with Bulgaria.

Around one million migrants and refugees from poverty-stricken countries and refugees from wars crossed into Europe in 2015, raising fears of a social crisis in the EU and strengthening the hand of right-wing nationalist parties across the continent.