President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday expressed hope that visa-free travel for Turks to the passport-free Schengen area would help accelerate Turkey's long-running membership bid to join the European Union. 

"I hope that the visa exemption... will constitute a positive step in fulfilling the promises made and speed up the accession process," Erdogan said in a statement, reaffirming EU membership as a "strategic goal" for Ankara.