Çavuşoğlu said it was unacceptable for Turkey that EU member countries were granting asylum to the members of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), the organization behind the July 15, 2016 coup attempt which killed 251 people and injured 2,200 others.
Çavuşoğlu reiterated Turkey's position that the Customs Union agreement between Turkey and the EU should be updated.
The minister also criticized negative and discriminative remarks against Turkey by several leaders and politicians about its EU candidacy. "There's no use in making statements that exclude Turkey from the EU accession process or denying its candidacy," he said.
"We made an agreement for migration. We sign to open five chapters [of the acquis communitaire], then a decision comes out against opening new chapters. This is hypocrisy, there's no explanation to this," Çavuşoğlu said, referring to the March 2016 deal in which Turkey agreed to take in migrants who illegally enter Greece, and send legal refugees from Turkey to the EU. In return, the EU was supposed to give 6 billion euros to Turkey to be used in projects for migrants, remove visa requirements for Turkish citizens and open new chapters in accession negotiations on condition of implementing some proposed reforms.
