Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that “terrorists” will never achieve their aims, hours after a blast near the parliament in Ankara injured two police officers.
“The villains who threaten the peace and security of citizens have not achieved their objectives and will never achieve them,” Erdogan told the parliament.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at reopening of parliament:
– Türkiye has made great progress in terms of development
– We no longer live in a country where parliament shut down and coups implemented
– Our new duty is to make sure that we have a new civilian constitution pic.twitter.com/y4TqFt14I3— TRT World (@trtworld) October 1, 2023
Erdogan slams EU
Erdogan later opened the parliamentary session by slamming his country’s long wait for accession to the EU, stating that Turkey “no longer expects anything from the European Union, which has kept us waiting at its door for 40 years”.
“We have kept all the promises we have made to the EU but they have kept almost none of theirs,” he said, adding that he would not “tolerate any new demands or conditions” for his country to join the bloc.
This session of Turkey’s parliament must also validate Sweden’s entry into the NATO alliance.
