Ankara has expressed astonishment that no EU official has visited Turkey in the wake of the coup. He claimed support for the EU -- which Turkey has sought to join since the 1960s -- had plummeted to some 20 percent. WorldANKARA, AFP -Turkey accused the EU on Wednesday of “encouraging” the plotters on the night of the July 15 coup in an escalating row that has raised questions over Ankara's future relationship with the bloc. It was his first foreign trip since the failed coup, but the foreign minister said it was not a move to turn Turkey's focus to the East. “Let me say openly, this is because the EU adopted a favourable position to the coup (and) encouraged the putschists,” the minister told reporters during a televised briefing in the capital Ankara without expanding further.

Source: Sunday Times August 10, 2016 10:41 UTC