BERLIN – German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected questions in Turkey about whether the European Union really wants the Muslim-majority country as a member, saying the 27-nation bloc is being "an honest negotiating partner."
Merkel told reporters after a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday that the talks on Turkey's 25-year effort to join the EU would "continue regardless of the questions that still need to be clarified."
On Tuesday, Erdogan told a political seminar in Berlin that Turkey might lose interest in becoming an EU member if it doesn't join by 2023.
He has previously set that year — the centenary of the founding of the Turkish republic — as the year for Turkey to become a global economic and political power.
Fox News' "Antisemitism Exposed" newsletter brings you stories on the rising anti-Jewish prejudice across the U.S. and the world.