ANKARA

Nearly 80% of the Turkish public favors EU membership, Türkiye's top official for relations with the bloc said Monday

"I can inform you that 79% of Turkish people want EU membership," said Faruk Kaymakci, deputy foreign minister and EU affairs director, on Twitter in response to a posting by a political communications specialist at the European Commission.

He quoted the figure in response to Tom Moylan, who on his personal Twitter account posted a graphic titled "Who wants to join the EU most?" along with pictures of over a dozen countries – failing, however, to include longtime candidate country Türkiye.

Kaymakci responded: “Dear Tom, the EU picture would not be complete & fair without Türkiye, an EU negotiating candidate. Omitting and adding those who are not even EU candidates distorts the picture of the EU.”

Moylan later responded: “I didn't make the picture - I just thought it was interesting … Thanks for sharing the stat though, I agree that Turkey was a glaring omission."

Türkiye applied for EU membership in 1987 and accession talks began in 2005.

In the years since, talks have been essentially frozen due to political roadblocks by certain EU members, for reasons unrelated to its suitability for membership, according to Ankara.