Erdogan suggests UK-style referendum on Turkey EU bid

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the first time suggests Turkey could hold a referendum over whether to continue its long-stalled bid to join the European Union.

Angrily lashing out at the bloc’s treatment of Ankara, Erdogan says Turkey could hold a referendum along the lines of the plebiscite in Britain, where voters are deciding Thursday whether to stay in the European Union or leave.

“We can stand up and ask the people just like the British are doing,” Erdogan says late Wednesday at a speech in Istanbul, quoted by the state-run Anadolu news agency.

“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,” Erdogan says.

He had previously insisted on repeated occasions that full EU membership was Turkey’s strategic aim.

— AFP