Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Turkey will dance very difficult dance with EU from now on: Alexander Velev

Photo: BGNES

One year after the coup attempt in Turkey the Turkish society is strongly divided, Director General of the Bulgarian National Radio and former Consul General of Bulgaria to Turkey Alexander Velev told the BNR on Saturday. The small difference in the support towards the Presidential and the Parliamentary Republic shows in fact how much the Turkish society is divided. The march that ended with a huge meeting in Istanbul headed by the leader of the Republican People’s Party Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu shows that many Turkish citizens stand in support of the opposition’s demands, Alexander Velev went on to say. It is still difficult to say whether that country’s opposition will manage to restructure, consolidate and gain momentum until the next elections in two years. In the recent years a maximum of 20% of the Turkish nationals have been supporting the People’s Democratic Party and that level of support has not changed significantly, which is perhaps due to problems related to leadership,  Alexander Velev said and forecasted that Turkey and Brussels will have complicated talks with regard to Turkey’s candidature for EU membership. Turkey and the EU will dance a very difficult dance from now on. However, possible suspension of the EU accession talks between Brussels and Ankara and tension between Turkey and the EU are not in Bulgaria’s interest, because this would mean that Turkey will be receding from the European Union, Alexander Velev further said.




Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

No quorum, scandals and friendly fire: Is the government on shaky ground?

Last week, Bulgaria’s 51st National Assembly all but ground to a halt. On each of the three regular sitting days — Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday — parliament failed to reach the required quorum of 121 out of 220 deputies. On Friday, for instance, only..

published on 9/29/25 1:42 PM
Илие Боложан

Balkan developments

Romania continues policy of gradual budget deficit reduction Romania should end the year with a budget deficit amounting to 8.4%, as compared to 9.4% at the end of 2024, as negotiated with the EU, PM Ilije Bolojan has announced. During his visit..

published on 9/26/25 3:45 PM
The building of the current Bulgarian Parliament

Three political parties contest the second place in case of early elections: survey of Trend agency

GERB-SDS party maintain their dominance in new parliamentary elections with 26.4%, show the results of a survey by the sociological agency "Trend". The poll was conducted on behalf of 24 Chasa daily through a direct standardized "face-to-face" interview..

published on 9/25/25 11:10 AM