erdogan confirms turkey will resist any pressure to recognize cyprus
ankara 12 - 1 ( afp ) - the turkish head of government , recep tayyip erdogan , announced today ( wednesday ) that ankara would resist any pressure the european union might exercise in order to force it into recognizing cyprus . this comes two weeks before a summit of european union heads of state and government , who will decide whether or not to open membership negotiations with ankara .
erdogan said to the ntv television channel : " the european union cannot engage with us through imposing new conditions on us with regard to cyprus .
we shall discuss this issue in the course of the membership negotiations . "
he added : " let me be clear - i cannot confine turkey . this is something we do not accept . "