...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...said Saturday that
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
may part ways with the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, 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 Turkey," he told news hounds before departing for the 78th U.N. 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-Turkiye relations."
Turkey 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 Turkey's foreign minister affirmed his country’s resolve to join the EU and urged the bloc to take courageous steps to advance its bid.