Ankara continues efforts to join EU

Ankara has issued a strong attack on the European Union (EU) for what it calls a "bigoted" assessment of Turkey in its report on EU membership requirements published in October. In response, Turkey drew up its own report released this week to counter Brussels'. Despite the current acrimony, Ankara is expressing hopes its membership bid will get back on track with Ireland taking over the EU presidency.

In an unprecedented step, Ankara, earlier this week, published its own assessment of its progress to join the ranks of the European Union in reponse to Brussels' critical assessment which raised concerns over deteriorating human rights in the country.

Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis in Istanbul, June 26, 2012. ​​In the 270-page report, Turkey's Minister for EU membership, Ergemen Bagis, claimed such...

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Turkey has been trying to join the European Union since 2005. We can learn a little bit about the process behind becoming a member nation of the EU from this report.