Far-right success in European Parliament worries Turkey

Turkey is concerned over the success of far-right parties in last week's European Parliament elections as the results may have an adverse effect on its application to join the EU, the co-chairman of the country's EU joint-parliamentary committee said Friday. 

"Humanity suffered so much in the history from the political extremism that came after the economic depression. They forgot in that time to live brotherly," Afif Demirkiran said a written statement. "I hope that it will not happen again as the European Union, which was created as a peace project - has reminded the forgotten values to people and executives once again."  

Demirkan said that Turkey's accession to the EU would help Europe recover from the 2008 economic crisis, which pushed countries around the world into economic recession, both economically and financially. 

"Extreme right wing and racist parties oppose harshly, we will continue having close ties with the European Union and doing negotiations and necessary reforms without making concessions," the Turkish MP added. 

The EU-wide vote saw Marine Le Pen's Front National take a quarter of France's vote. In Britain the UK Independence Party, which advocates withdrawal from the EU, gained 27.5 percent of the vote in a victory described as a "political earthquake" by its leader Nigel Farage.

The center right European People´s Party is again the largest grouping in the assembly with an estimated 223 seats and the Socialists the second largest with 185 seats of the 751 total.