BREAKING NEWS

Erdogan struggles with Merkel's scepticism on Turkish EU bid

By REUTERS

FEBRUARY 4, 2014 17:26

BERLIN- Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan urged Angela Merkel to throw Germany's full weight behind his country's bid to join the European Union but there was no sign the chancellor had been swayed from her sceptical stance on Turkish membership.

In a visit to Berlin overshadowed by EU concerns about his crackdown on the judiciary and police whom he accuses of forming part of a "parallel state", Erdogan complained that German support was "not currently adequate".

"We want to see more. I would like to remind you that the population of Turks in Germany alone is greater than the population of many European countries," he told the German Council on Foreign Relations before meeting Merkel.

Erdogan has purged thousands of police and sought tighter control of the courts since a corruption inquiry burst into the open in December, a scandal he has cast as an attempted "judicial coup" meant to undermine him ahead of elections.

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