Germany lobbying to suspend Turkey's EU membership talks

Germany is looking for ways to suspend EU membership talks with Turkey after the Gezi Park protests in central İstanbul.

The membership talks are scheduled to resume on June 26 after three-year hiatus and they are largely seen as a hope to revive long stalled negotiations between the two sides. But Germany is seeking to delay the talks with Turkey, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

One day after his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government raised the prospects of holding a referendum or plebiscite in a bid to resolve the two-week-long Gezi Park conundrum, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued his last call to the protestors on Thursday, saying that they will be removed from the park within 24 hours.

Erdoğan said he asked for the park to be cleared within 24 hours. “We will clean the square,” he said.
"Our patience is at an end. I am making my warning for the last time. I say to the mothers and fathers please take your children in hand and bring them out... We cannot wait any more because Gezi Park does not belong to occupying forces but to the people," Erdoğan told an AK Party meeting in Ankara.

The report quoted a senior German diplomat as saying that it is not exactly a good moment to be giving Erdoğan any reward, referring to the restart of the negotiations.

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