turkey, a member of nato, was granted dialogue partner status in the shanghai cooperation organisation (sco) at the group's 2012 summit in beijing. turkish prime minister recep tayyip erdoğan has stated that he has discussed the possibility of abandoning turkey's european union membership candidacy in return for full membership in the shanghai cooperation organisation. this was reinforced again on 21 november 2016, after the european parliament voted unanimously to suspend accession negotiations with turkey. two days later, on 23 november 2016, turkey was granted the chairmanship of the energy club of sco for the 2017 period. that made turkey the first country to chair a club in the organisation without full membership status.