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Çavuşoğlu predicts Turkey-EU summit

Speaking in live TV interview with Turkey's A Haber news channel, Çavuşoğlu said the date of "a big summit" would be determined after talks with EU officials at an upcoming NATO meeting on May 24-25 in Brussels.

Published May 02,2017
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Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Tuesday said a Turkey-EU summit was expected to be convened but added no date had been decided.

Speaking in live TV interview with Turkey's A Haber news channel, Çavuşoğlu said the date of "a big summit" would be determined after talks with EU officials at an upcoming NATO meeting on May 24-25 in Brussels.

Çavuşoğlu said some EU leaders had demanded a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the NATO summit. He also said some European governments had admitted they had been wrong on Turkey.

The minister said: "They understood that they were making a mistake. Some foreign ministers even asked me in Malta: 'What should we do to correct our mistakes?'"

He said Turkey had no problems with common European values "as these are our values as well".

"The only problem is the EU's approach," he added.

Earlier, Erdogan said Turkey would stop pursuing EU membership if the bloc failed to open new accession chapters.

"You [EU] have no choice but to open these chapters you have not opened so far. If you don't, [then] goodbye," the Turkish president said.

Diplomatic ties between Turkey and the EU have become strained, particularly over the failed July 2016 coup attempt.

Turkey's government said it had not received an appropriate response from the EU to the coup.

Ankara is also unhappy over some European countries' criticism of Turkey's efforts against the PKK and the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

Turkey accuses FETO of orchestrating the coup attempt in which 249 deaths took place and thousands of people were injured.