Turkish Vice PM commented on his country’s possible accession to SCO

“Turkey is one of a few countries which can maintain relations with various blocs simultaneously and this is our advantage. Now we have an observer status in the SCO. Our President has an intention to join the SCO and he announced it. We’ll see how the situation will develop. However, this doesn’t mean that we will break our relations with other organizations,” Kurtulmuş said at a press  conference in Ankara.

Earlier, President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that “EU is not the only option for his country and Ankara discusses possible accession to the SCO.”  In his words, SCO membership will provide more freedom of actions to Turkey.

Established in 2011, the SCO unites today Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In 2015, the SCO decided to admit India and Pakistan as full members. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka are dialogue partners of the Organization.