Turkey's Erdogan holds 'positive' talks in Austria

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz in Vienna.

Turkey's Erdogan holds 'positive' talks in Austria
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held "positive" talks on Friday with Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz amid a critical reception from the Austrian media.

The 50-minute meeting, closed to the media, came after Kurz said Erdogan’s visit to address Turks living in Austria had “caused disorder”.

The Austrian press had reported that 70 percent of Austrians did not want Erdogan to visit after a similar trip to Germany was criticized for being “divisive”.

Turkey’s Minister for EU Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters the meeting was "very positive" and that Kurz was pleased with Erdogan's message of integration to Austria’s Turks.

The discussion also touched on further bilateral ties, Turkey's EU accession process and regional developments, Cavusoglu added. Erdogan also asked Austria to be more active in Turkey's EU membership process.

- Erdogan says Europe without Turkey is unimaginable

A Europe without Turkey is unimaginable, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a speech in Austria's capital Vienna on Thursday.

At a rally for 10th anniversary of the Union of Turkish Democrats, Ergodan said Turkey would contribute to the European Union with its growing economy and young population. 

"Turkey will not give up on the EU membership process and will continue its efforts to join the union,” he said. "We have come to Vienna to conquer hearts and nobody should be afraid of us or extract any meanings otherwise, if the prime minister of the Republic of Turkey has come to meet his expatriates in Europe.”

Erdogan paid his gratitude to the Austrian government for hosting Turkish female students who wore headscarves, even while they had been refused education in Turkey because of a law imposed in 1984.

He stressed that the government has lifted the "meaningless" prohibitions and restrictions on wearing headscarves in Turkish universities.

Erdogan hailed economic progress made in Turkey under his party's rule, saying: “Turkish expatriates in Europe should not only be proud of their ancestors but their homeland - the Republic of Turkey.”

He added that Turkey's involvement in the Middle East is for humanitarian reasons, not oil interests. “No one in the world can separate us from our brethren in the Middle East,” he said.
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