[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] The European Parliament on Thursday voted in favour of a freeze of membership talks with ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
over its post-coup crackdown, further escalating tensions with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
Erdogan has already dismissed the vote as having "no value" as it is non-binding,
| ...so about as meaningful as the posturing against Israel that regularly occurs in the UN General Assembly... |
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
member states so far want to keep the Turkey talks on track.
But the motion, approved by a big majority, is a fresh blow to ties that have unravelled in the wake of the failed July 15 failed putsch and threatened a key migration deal between Brussels and Ankara.
| It's moving slow enough that you'd wonder if Carla del Ponte was in charge... |
They said they remained "committed to keeping Turkey anchored to the EU" but said parliament "calls on the Commission and the Member States, however, to initiate a temporary freeze of the ongoing accession negotiations with Turkey."
The motion was approved by 479 votes to 37, with 107 abstentions.
Erdogan said on Wednesday that "I want to say in advance from here and address the whole world watching on their TV screens -- this vote has no value at all, no matter what result emerges."
"It is not possible for me to even digest the message that they want to deliver."
Europe’s message has however been increasingly clear about its concerns over rights and democracy in Turkey, especially over the coup crackdown that has seen almost 37,000 tossed in the slammer
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!