MESOP NEWS – Erdoğan: Turkey hasn’t given up on EU membership / GOING EUROPE
By Cynthia Kroet – Politico Brussels – 11/30/16, – Turkey’s president on Tuesday said that despite setbacks in the relationship with the EU, he had not lost hope his country could still join the bloc, AFP reported. “We have not yet closed the European Union book right now,” Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at an event in Istanbul. But he added: “Nobody should forget that Turkey always has many other alternatives.”While Erdoğan wouldn’t specify which countries he would consider aligning with, he said Turkey was “of course continuing our talks with those alternatives.” Previously, the president had indicated the country could join Russia and China in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.