{"id":17542,"date":"2018-10-05T22:24:07","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T22:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17542"},"modified":"2018-10-05T22:24:07","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T22:24:07","slug":"erdogan-will-consider-referendum-on-turkeys-bid-to-join-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17542","title":{"rendered":"Erdogan \u2018will consider referendum on Turkey\u2019s bid to join EU\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1383166\/middle-east\" readability=\"80\">\n<p>\nISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would consider putting Turkey\u2019s long-stalled bid to join the EU to a referendum, signalling exasperation with a process he says has been waylaid by prejudice against Muslims.<\/p>\n<p>\nA direct vote on whether to continue Turkey\u2019s candidacy for EU membership could potentially end Ankara\u2019s negotiations for accession, which formally began in 2005, and increase its distance from the West.<\/p>\n<p>\nEU countries, particularly Germany, have been critical of Turkey and Erdogan in the aftermath of an attempted coup in 2016. The sweeping security crackdown that followed the failed putsch has seen more than 100,000 people jailed and dozens of media outlets shut down. Erdogan has fumed over what he sees as a lack of support from the West.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cIt is 2018 and they (the EU) are still keeping us waiting,\u201d Erdogan said at a forum in Istanbul.\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"246\" src=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/sites\/default\/files\/userimages\/20\/erdogan_embed_0.png\" width=\"250\"><\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cIt is for us to go to 81 million people and see what decision the 81 million people give,\u201d he said, referring to Turkey\u2019s electorate.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe said that if the decision to hold a referendum were taken, measures could be taken \u201cimmediately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cLet\u2019s put it on the table with colleagues and discuss it as party chairman and after that, the moment one has said \u2018ok\u2019 we will immediately take our step,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cThere are European countries where they squeeze two or three referendums into one year. Actually, one has to get used to referendums.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nErdogan has long accused EU member states of harboring anti-Muslim sentiment, saying that the bloc is uneasy at the prospect of having a majority Muslim country as a member.<\/p>\n<p>\nDutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok, on a visit to Ankara on Wednesday, said Turkey must address issues around the rule of law and human rights to make progress on EU accession possible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would consider putting Turkey\u2019s long-stalled bid to join the EU to a referendum, signalling exasperation with a process he says has been waylaid by prejudice against Muslims. A direct vote on whether to continue Turkey\u2019s candidacy for EU membership could potentially end Ankara\u2019s negotiations for accession, which formally&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":17543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}