{"id":940961,"date":"2026-05-06T06:30:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T06:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/940961\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T06:30:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T06:30:32","slug":"erdogan-warns-against-eu-exclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/940961\/","title":{"rendered":"Erdogan warns against EU exclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"600\" class=\"picture-main-block-image\" data-nxsrc=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/erdogan_AP-scaled.jpg?v=1778044666\" alt=\"Erdogan warns against EU exclusion\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/erdogan_AP-960x600.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>File photo. [AP]<\/p>\n<p>Turkey\u2019s president urged the European Union to pursue closer ties with Ankara, arguing that the bloc increasingly needs Turkey\u2019s strength and regional influence. In a speech, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Europe faces a choice: recognize Turkey\u2019s power and global reach as an opportunity to overcome current challenges, or allow \u201cthe rhetoric of exclusion to tarnish Europe\u2019s future.\u201d He added that \u201ctoday, Europe\u2019s need for Turkey is greater than Turkey\u2019s need for Europe, and tomorrow this need will grow even more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Erdogan also pointed to Turkey\u2019s longstanding EU bid, contrasting it with Greece\u2019s accession, and argued that the bloc cannot be a global actor without Turkey as a full member. \u201cWe are not and will never become a country whose existence is remembered only when necessary,\u201d he said, warning against treating Turkey as a partner of convenience.<\/p>\n<p>He urged the EU to recognize the value of Turkey\u2019s \u201cconstructive stance,\u201d avoid exploiting it, and refrain from actions or statements that could undermine relations. \u201cNeither is Turkey the same as it used to be, nor is the world limited to the sphere of influence of Western states as it once was,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts said Erdogan\u2019s remarks were a response to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who stressed the need for deeper European integration to reduce external influence.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, nationalist leader Devlet Bahceli warned against regional initiatives in the Eastern Mediterranean, saying efforts that sideline Turkey could not go unanswered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"File photo. [AP] Turkey\u2019s president urged the European Union to pursue closer ties with Ankara, arguing that the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1699,12072,285,8536,461],"class_list":{"0":"post-940961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-foreign-affairs","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","15":"tag-turkey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116526228837703233","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}