Erdogan Says Türkiye May Part Ways with EU

Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference after attending the G20 summit, in New Delhi on September 10, 2023. (AFP)
Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference after attending the G20 summit, in New Delhi on September 10, 2023. (AFP)
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Erdogan Says Türkiye May Part Ways with EU

Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference after attending the G20 summit, in New Delhi on September 10, 2023. (AFP)
Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference after attending the G20 summit, in New Delhi on September 10, 2023. (AFP)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that Türkiye may part ways with the European Union, implying that the country is thinking about ending its bid to join the 27-nation bloc.

“The EU is making efforts to sever ties with Türkiye,” he told reporters before departing for the 78th UN General Assembly in New York.

“We will evaluate the situation, and if needed we will part ways with the EU.”

He was responding to a question about a recent report adopted by the European Parliament, which stated “the accession process cannot resume under the current circumstances, and calls on EU to explore ‘a parallel and realistic framework’ for EU-Türkiye relations.”

Türkiye applied to join the European Union in 1999, and accession talks began in 2005. Accession negotiations were frozen in 2018 because of “democratic backsliding,” according to the European Parliament.

Erdogan's statement on Saturday came more than a week after Türkiye’s foreign minister affirmed his country’s resolve to join the EU and urged the bloc to take courageous steps to advance its bid.



Death Toll in Attack on Germany Market Rises to 5, Scholz Calls for Solidarity

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff, and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visit the site where a car drove into a crowd of a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Christian Mang
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff, and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visit the site where a car drove into a crowd of a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Christian Mang
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Death Toll in Attack on Germany Market Rises to 5, Scholz Calls for Solidarity

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff, and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visit the site where a car drove into a crowd of a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Christian Mang
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff, and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visit the site where a car drove into a crowd of a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Christian Mang

Germans on Saturday mourned the victims after a doctor drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people, including a small child, and wounding at least 200 others.

Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the site of the attack in Magdeburg on Friday evening and took him into custody for questioning.

He has lived in Germany since 2006, practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers south of Magdeburg, officials said.

The state governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters that the death toll rose to five from a previous figure of two and that more than 200 people in total were injured.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that nearly 40 of them "are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.”

Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day.

Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser traveled to Magdeburg.

The chancellor called on the nation to stand together against hate.

Faeser ordered flags lowered to half-staff at federal buildings across the country.