The EU accused Turkey on Tuesday of backsliding on the rule of law, rights and the media, calling on the new government to take urgent action in a sensitive report that Brussels held back until after elections, AFP reports.
The scathing report on Ankara's EU candidacy, originally due for release before the vote that returned President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party to power, praised Turkey for housing Syrian refugees and for cooperating on the migration crisis.
But it was severely critical of the domestic situation in Muslim majority Turkey, saying that under Erdogan there had been "serious backsliding" on freedom of expression and that the judiciary had been undermined.