ANKARA (Sputnik) — European lawmakers voted on Thursday in favor of freezing European Union accession talks with Turkey until it lifts restrictive measures in place since the July failed coup.
"We accept 3 million refugees and you start groaning when 50,000 people attempt to enter [into the EU]. Listen, if you go further, you should know that these border crossings will be opened," Erdogan said in remarks broadcast at a women's congress in Istanbul.
Turkey signed an association agreement with the then-European Community in 1963, and submitted a membership application in 1987. Talks about Ankara's membership of the European Union began in 2005. The negotiations on Turkey's EU membership have been repeatedly suspended due to the Cyprus dispute and Turkey's record of denying press freedom, among other obstacles.
