ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he wanted to improve relations with the European Union and was hoping for the same “goodwill” from the 27-nation bloc.
Erdogan’s comments follow a year of tensions involving Turkey’s more assertive foreign policy in the eastern Mediterranean as well as Libya and parts of the Middle East.
Turkey’s relations have become especially strained with Greece and European power France as a result.
But the Turkish leader has softened some of his toughest rhetoric and took a conciliatory tone in a televised meeting with EU ambassadors in a presidential compound in Ankara.
“We are ready to put our relations back on track,” Erdogan told the ambassadors.
“We expect our European friends to show the same goodwill.”
Turkey and Greece this week agreed to address their long-standing dispute over maritime borders at exploratory talks in Istanbul on January 25.
The meeting will be the first since so-called “exploratory talks” between the two uneasy NATO neighbors were suspended after 60 fruitless rounds stretching 14 years in 2016.
“We believe that the exploratory talks... will be the harbinger of a new era,” Erdogan said.
He also said he was open to better relations with Paris after months of personal feuds with French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We want to save our relations with France from tensions,” Erdogan said.
Erdogan says wants EU ties ‘back on track’
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Erdogan says wants EU ties ‘back on track’
- Turkey’s relations have become especially strained with Greece and European power France
- But the Turkish leader has softened some of his toughest rhetoric and took a conciliatory tone
Tunisia lawmaker jailed eight months for criticizing president
- Ahmed Saidani was taken into custody earlier this month after posting on social media
- Dozens of his critics are being prosecuted or in prison, including under a law criminalizing “false news“
TUNIS: A Tunisian court has sentenced a lawmaker to eight months in prison for criticizing President Kais Saied following recent floods, local media reported.
Ahmed Saidani was taken into custody earlier this month after posting on social media about Saied’s visits to areas affected by floods, calling him the “supreme commander of sanitation and stormwater drainage.”
Saidani’s lawyer, Houssem Eddine Ben Attia, had told AFP his client was being prosecuted under a telecommunications law against “harming others via social media,” which carries up to two years in prison.
Rights groups have warned of a rollback on freedoms in Tunisia since Saied staged a sweeping power grab in 2021.
Dozens of his critics are being prosecuted or in prison, including under a law criminalizing “false news.”
Saidani had backed Saied’s power grab and the detention of several opposition figures, but has recently become vocally critical of the president.
At least five people died and others were still missing after Tunisia was hit by its heaviest rainfall in more than 70 years last month.
