President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the European Union doesn’t want Turkey because it’s a “Muslim-majority country” and he may hold a referendum on whether to continue with efforts to join the bloc.
“We can stand up and ask the people just like the British are doing,” Turkish president said according to a report by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Speaking late Wednesday after breaking the Ramadan fast, Erdoğan also said what the question at such a referendum would be: “We would ask: ‘Do we continue the negotiations with the European Union or do we end it?’ If the people say ‘continue,’ then we would carry on.”
Turkey was promised membership in 1963 but progress has been very slow, Erdoğan said. “Why are you stalling?” he asked. Ankara formally applied for membership in 1987 and began accession talks in 2005.
During the debate on the Brexit vote, advocates of the Leave camp have argued that Turks would descend on the U.K. if it remains in the EU. Prime Minister David Cameron has rejected this argument, saying that it would not happen because Turkey joining the EU is “not remotely on the cards.”
Cameron’s comments have angered Ankara.