Turkey criticizes EU report on country’s membership process

The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Tuesday blasted the EU Commission’s 2021 report on Turkey’s membership process, saying it once again reflected the double standard approach toward the country.

The ministry said in a written statement that the report on the enlargement strategy “unfortunately” overlooked responsibilities toward Turkey at a time when the Ankara government had revived high-level dialogue with the EU and sought to develop a better political agenda with the bloc.

According to the statement, Turkey rejected the inclusion of “inconsistent and biased” Greek and Greek Cypriot theses in the report, as it did in the previous years.

Turkey does not accept baseless and unfair criticism especially in the chapters of political criteria along with judiciary and basic rights, the ministry said, adding that the EU came up with unproportionate findings without evaluating the conditions specific to Turkey with regards to the country’s governance, political system, basic rights, and fight against terrorism.

The statement added that the EU approach did not take threats – such as the YPG/PKK, Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), and Daesh terrorist groups’ threats against Turkey – into account. The EU approach served no other purpose than to please “radical” circles in Europe that are against EU and Turkey, it also said.

Referring to the deal reached on March 18, 2016, the ministry said the report solely focused on the migration part of the agreement. While it praised Turkey for its efforts in the context of migration, it did not mention the EU’s obligations in this regard, and it was unacceptable that the EU only sought to cooperate with Turkey based on its sole interests in certain fields, added the ministry statement.

The ministry also underlined that it was yet another EU inconsistency that the report claimed a decrease in Turkey’s compliance with the EU policies and the emergence of new conflicts of interests while the bloc was obstructing existing high-level dialogue and cooperation mechanisms on subjects such as foreign policy, regional developments, security, defense, and sectoral matters.

It was further noted that the EU was not authorized to draw conclusions on the issues of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Aegean and Cyprus and it included either inconsistent or pro-Greek or Greek Cypriot theses in the report, which were rejected by Turkey.

While Turkey does its part of the bargain fairly so as to de-escalate the tension, initiate dialogue and cooperation, the EU persistently refuses to acknowledge the rights of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots, said the statement, arguing that this biased and unfair approach of the EU added to the tensions let alone offering a solution. This approach undermined the EU ambition to be a regional and global power, it also noted.

The ministry said it welcomed that the report highlighted the development of the Turkish economy and it was moving toward pre-crisis level thanks to the measures adopted as part of efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak but the EU did not have the right to remind Turkey of its obligations while politicizing the update of the Customs Union, especially at a time when state interference in the economy has risen to eliminate the negative impact of COVID-19 on finance.

DailySabah