Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the European Union on Tuesday to treat his country like it does Ukraine, without waiting for it to be “hit by a war”.
“Show Turkey the same sensitivity that we are witnessing towards Ukraine,” Erdogan said at a press conference in Ankara.
Turkey has been a candidate for EU membership since 1987 but talks have floundered in recent years, with Brussels increasingly critical of Erdogan’s authoritarian rule.
“We applaud (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky at the European Parliament: that’s very good,” said Erdogan.
“It required a catastrophe for that… Turkey won’t wait for a catastrophe.
Recalling that Turkey is already a member of NATO, he added: “Why don’t you give the military equipment needed by Turkey?”
Erdogan finds himself in a tricky balancing act over the invasion, with close ties to both Russia and Ukraine.
He has moved closer to Moscow in recent years, buying Russian military equipment against the wishes of Turkey’s NATO partners.
But it has called for a ceasefire and blocked warships from using the key Bosphorus and Dardanelles waterways that Russia needs to access the Black Sea from the Mediterranean.