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Brussels (dpa) - Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has sharply criticized the latest developments in Turkey.

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Saturday night by decree that he would withdraw from the Istanbul Convention for the Protection of Women.

The ban application against the pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP and the country's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention for the Protection of Women against Violence are “absolutely the wrong signs,” Maas said on Monday on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

However, the SPD politician assessed the easing of the situation in the eastern Mediterranean as positive.

There, Turkey recently provoked the EU countries Greece and Cyprus with controversial gas explorations.

"We will continue to strive to maintain a dialogue," said Maas.

This will also be used to address the wrong signals.

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At the ministerial meeting in Brussels, the EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell presented a comprehensive report on the state of political and economic relations between the EU and Turkey.

It is intended to serve as a basis for talks at the summit of the heads of state and government at the end of the week and also contains options in the event that Turkey continues on a confrontational course with the EU.

This also includes measures against “sectors important for the Turkish economy” such as tourism, as the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported on Monday.

In addition, import and export bans for certain goods and technologies are mentioned as possible punitive measures.

Erdogan announced on Friday that he was withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention for the Protection of Women.

The General Prosecutor's Office in Ankara had already filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court to ban HDP on Wednesday, among other things because of terrorist allegations.

It also demands a five-year political ban for more than 680 HDP politicians, including party leaders Mithat Sancar and Pervin Buldan, and former chairman Selahattin Demirtas, who has been imprisoned since 2016.

The HDP is the second largest opposition party in parliament.

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