Germany: Turkey demands support for EU membership

A day before he is due in Germany, Turkish President Tayyib Erdogan has harshly criticized Germany’s policy towards Turkish efforts to join the European Union, saying it should support full membership. “The expectation of the Turkish population is that Germany, as previously under earlier CDU governments, take a leading role within the EU regarding the entry negotiations with Turkey,” Erdogan told Saturday’s edition of the Rheinische Post.Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has most recently proposed a "privileged partnership" between Turkey and the European Union, something Erdogan rejects, and suggested was only a construct for domestic consumption. “I understand it as a formulation which is only considered for domestic use,” he said. The entry negotiations were being slowed down due to purely political considerations, he added. Erdogan is due to address thousands of people on Sunday in the Düsseldorf ISS Dome – the majority attending are expected to be Turks or people of Turkish heritage. Local police are preparing for protests.
the local