President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a message on the occasion of May 9 Europe Day.
In his message, President Erdoğan said:
"Europe Day, observed each year on May 9, is a symbol of Europe's political and economic integration process, which began with the Schuman Declaration in 1950.
The European Union, as the embodiment of European integration, has been facing multifaceted global and regional challenges in recent years. The future of the European security architecture is currently under discussion; the silence over the massacres in Gaza for the past 19 months, along with the failure to develop an effective policy to halt Israel's attacks, calls the values of the Union into question.
The European Union today needs a visionary and courageous perspective, similar to the one that laid the foundations of integration in its early years. In these challenging times, an inclusive and integrative European Union that is not beholden to the interests of individual member states but instead prioritises the collective interests of the continent serves the best interests of everyone.
Our country, a candidate for EU membership despite all the obstacles it has faced, also stands as a guarantor of the Union's survival through its humanitarian, peaceful, and constructive policies in times of crisis and conflict, as well as the fair solutions it puts forward.
Indeed, recent transatlantic and global developments, which have impacted the entire world and prompted a reassessment of established policies, have once again demonstrated the importance of Türkiye-Union relations. Notwithstanding the unjust stance occasionally adopted by certain individuals and groups claiming to represent European Union institutions against our nation, I am confident that the Union will demonstrate the foresight to act with a long-term and strategic perspective rooted in mutual advantage in the period ahead.
On this occasion, I extend my congratulations to the European people, particularly to my own citizens, on Europe Day."