Turkey’s attempted coup narrows EU membership accession prospects

Global Business

Turkey's attempted coup narrows EU membership accession prospects

Can Turkey ever hope to join the European Union? Before June’s attempted military coup, its negotiations had been on-off for decades amid concerns about human rights violations and then the impact of the migrant crisis.

Now the aftermath of that coup is creating fresh concerns that Turkey will never join a trading bloc it needs. CCTV America’s Owen Fairclough reports.

The damage to Turkey’s EU membership application will last much longer as the head of the European Commission is putting it off indefinitely.

“For the past 53 years, Europe has been making us wait. And during this time, other countries have become members of the European Union. Have these countries adapted better to the legal standards of the EU? No. We are in a better condition than countries that have become members, in terms of fundamental rights and liberties or economic opportunity,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey said.

But Erdogan’s suggestion that the death penalty may be used against coup participants is a violation of the EU’s membership criteria.

Analysts said Turkey had plenty of other barriers before the coup.

Turkey did around $150 billion of trade with the EU last year. That’s nearly ten times more than Turkey did with the U.S. But at least it can count on the U.S. as a long standing NATO ally. But the coup may be straining the alliance, too

President Erdogan wants the U.S. to extradite Fethullah Gulen-the expatriate Muslim cleric he accused of masterminding the coup.

Turkey’s dragnet for conspirators, reaching across an ocean President Erdogan moves to consolidate his power.


Global economics analyst Saruhan Hatipoglu on Turkey EU membership

For more on Turkey EU membership, CCTV America’s Rachelle Akuffo spoke to Global economics analyst Saruhan Hatipoglu.