Turkey’s EU affairs minister has criticised comments by Austria’s chancellor on ending EU membership talks with Ankara.

It comes as rights groups fear Turkey’s president is taking advantage of a failed coup to tighten his grip on power.

Omer Celik, the Turkish minister, said the chancellor’s statement was “really disturbing.”

“He said the full membership negotiation between Turkey and EU is nothing but diplomatic fiction.” said Celik. “Frankly, It’s really disturbing that his statements are similar to those of the far right in Europe.”

Chancellor Christian Kern said he would start talks with European leaders to quit talks with Turkey because of the country’s economic and economic deficits.

“…but the accession negotiations are very empty,” he said, “in reality there is no substantial progress at the moment. As the process continues like that for years without significant steps towards the objective, […] there is no realistic accession perspective in the current situation.”

Kern also spoke about what he said were fears that Turkey is on its way to a dictatorship. He said we would be well advised to observe developments.