ANKARA, Turkey (AP) Turkey's prime minister has questioned the EU's right to evaluate his country, responding to critical comments in a recent union report.
In an address to his party's legislators on Tuesday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said some European countries should save their appraisals for their own often negative approach to Turkey's membership or for what he called their indifference to events in Syria and Egypt.
Last week, an annual EU report on Turkey's progress toward EU membership criticized the country for its failure to protect rights such as freedom of speech and assembly.
Erdogan said the EU report noted reforms Turkey planned to carry out. He blamed the critical comments on "deficient or wrongful" information.
Turkey's membership talks began in 2005 but progress has been slow.
