Turkey considers the 2021 country report of the European Parliament (EP) on Turkey to be biased, superficial and short-sighted. Ankara rejects the accusations made against it, Karar newspaper reported Wednesday, publishing the Turkish foreign ministry's position.
The EP report was adopted on Tuesday and is advisory in nature.
"We do not accept and reject the biased and detached from reality assessments contained in the EP report, which in the context of the need to strengthen relations between our country and the EU is based on a superficial and short-sighted approach," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The ministry noted that as a priority, it expects the European Parliament to support the revival of Ankara's negotiation process with the European Union, rather than turning it into a tool of narrow-minded circles. Ankara believes that the EP, which provides its platform for propaganda to representatives of terrorist organizations, has lost credibility with Turkish citizens. "Therefore, we don't care about the statements it contains regarding Turkey, particularly regarding the rule of law, respect for human rights and the baseless statements made by some EU representatives regarding the situation in the Aegean Sea, the Eastern Mediterranean and Cyprus," the statement reads.
Turkish authorities have previously stated that full membership in the European Union is a strategic goal of Ankara. Negotiations on Turkey's accession to the European Union have been ongoing since 2005 and have been repeatedly suspended. One of the stumbling blocks in the negotiation process is the Cyprus issue. So far, 16 out of 35 chapters of the so-called negotiation dossier have been opened.
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Based on materials from TASS