EU Minister Çelik set for talks, Merkel wants end to accession bid

AP photo

Turkey's EU Minister Ömer Çelik will hold talks with the foreign ministers of EU countries at an informal meeting this week, following German Chancellor Angela Merkel's announcement that she plans to ask for the suspension or ending of Ankara's bid to join the EU at the European Council in October. 

The EU's term president, Estonia, will host a Gymnich meeting on Sept. 7 and 8 in Talinn, at which EU foreign ministers will discuss a wide range of issues in an informal environment.

Turkey was scheduled to be represented at the meeting by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu but he will be replaced by Çelik, as Çavuşoğlu will be traveling to Bangladesh to visit the camps where Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar are sheltered.

At the Gymnich, Çelik is expected to echo Turkey's condemnation of Merkel's call to suspend talks, saying she should not "use Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as election campaign material."

During his visit to Talinn he will also hold bilateral talks with EU officials as well as foreign ministers. 

The Talinn talks come after Merkel's warning on Sept. 5 that Ankara is "drifting away from the rule of law fast" and her vow to push her EU partners to consider suspending or ending its accession talks at an October meeting.

Less than three weeks before an election, she vented her frustration with Turkey and spelled out her intentions clearly to the lower house of parliament after on Sept. 3 sharpening her rhetoric and saying Turkey should not become an EU member.

Those comments, made in a televised debate with her Social Democrat (SPD) election rival Martin Shulz, drew charges of "populism" from Ankara. 

Merkel to push EU for a decisive stance
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