Turkey Not Willing to Accept New EU Criteria for Membership
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would not agree to new conditions for European Union membership. Turkey is scheduled to start membership negotiations with the bloc on Oct. 3. But opposition to the country's membership bid is growing in Europe, and EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said this week that the bloc should have an open debate of Turkey's candidacy
Erdogan rejected any talk of changing the conditions for Turkey's bid, telling reporters late Saturday that "Turkey is not in the situation of renegotiating anything. "If you impose new things on countries from one day to the next, especially at a time when negotiations are about to start, that would not be right, that would not be proper," he said. "We're used to honest politics, that's what we expect and want."
Many European voters are balking at letting in the "poor", predominantly Muslim country of 70 million people, a move that would extend the EU's borders to Syria and Iran.
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