Turkey will never be EU member under Erdoğan: German FM

Turkey will never be a member of the European Union as long as it is governed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Aug. 24, accusing the Turkish president of failing to take accession talks with the bloc seriously.

His remarks in an interview with mass-selling newspaper Bild are likely to further inflame relations between the two NATO allies after Erdoğan urged German Turks to boycott Germany's main parties in next month's general election.

"It is clear that in this state, Turkey  will never become a member of the EU," Gabriel said. 

"It is not because we don't want them but because the Turkish government and Erdogan are moving fast away from everything that Europe stands for," he said.

Following criticism from EU officials, accession talks have ground to a virtual halt though Turkey remains a candidate for membership.

Turkey's western allies fear that the governance system shift in the April 16 referendum is pushing Turkey away from democratic values.

At a highpoint in tensions earlier this year, Erdoğan angered Germany, home to three million Turks, about half of whom can vote in the election on Sept. 24, by accusing German authorities of Nazi-like behavior.

Relations between the two countries have also been strained by Turkey's arrest of a Turkish-German journalist and a German human rights activist.