ANKARA — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered warm messagestowards the European Union this week after a year of particularly strainedrelations between the two sides.
“I always say this, We are compelled to reduce the number of foes andincrease the number of friends. We have no problems with Germany, theNetherlands or Belgium. On the contrary, those who are in the governmentsof these countries are my old friends,” Erdogan told journalists onThursday during a tour of African countries.
There might be official visits to France and Vatican in the coming monthsas there have been positive signals and easing of strained relations, hesaid.
His comments came after recent remarks by German Foreign Minister SigmarGabriel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte encouraging positive relationswith Turkey.
Gabriel said earlier this week that the EU should seek new ways of dealingwith Turkey.
According to Gabriel, the EU needs to find “alternative” ways of creatingcloser cooperation and partnerships with both Turkey and Ukraine as bothcountries are unlikely to join the 28-member bloc in the foreseeable future.
Rutte said on Dec. 23 that the “cold relations” between the Netherlands andTurkey should be fixed.
“I think it would be good if relations with Turkey could improve. Turkey isa NATO partner,” he told Dutch daily De Telegraaf in an interview.
Turkey and the EU have had an ongoing spat since 2016 after Brusselsexpressed strong criticism of Ankara over mass arrests in the country,connected with the failed coup attempt in July 2016.
Turkey is a candidate member to the bloc since 1999 but its accessionnegotiation launched in 2005 did not go far because of several membercountries’ direct or indirect opposition to the Muslim nation’s entry tothe Union.
The emergency rule and the massive crackdown imposed after the botched coupalso had a very negative effect on these negotiations that have beenofficially halted.
Turkey-EU ties took a hard blow in November 2016, when the EuropeanParliament suspended Turkish accession talks, following a constitutionalreferendum expanding powers of president in April 2017, which prompted theEU to vote to reopen the monitoring process against Turkey.
Ankara accused EU of harboring “terrorists,” suspected coup plotters whotook refuge or asylum in several European countries, and Erdogan, for hispart, declared that Turkey had “kept waiting at Europe’s door for far toolong” and did not need EU membership anymore.
Recently the Jerusalem issue seem to have generated a rapprochementopportunity between Brussels and Ankara.
In this context, Erdogan noted that his last contacts with German and Dutchleaders, whose countries he accused in the past of “Nazi practices,” were”quite good especially regarding the Jerusalem issue.
“We had problems, but our latest meetings have gone very well. I asked fortheir support on Jerusalem; we are all on the same page. I have called(German President Frank Walter) Steinmeier to thank him. Dutch PrimeMinister Mark Rutte sent some signals to improve ties with us. These aresatisfactory. We, of course, hope to have good ties with the EU and EUcountries,” Erdogan emphasized.
The seemingly warming of relations is something that most experts aresupporting in Turkey at a time when Ankara’s ties with its traditional NATOally, the United States, is also souring.
“The right choice for Turkey is definitely the EU, not the United States orRussia,” the latter with whom Turkey has enjoyed close ties in the recentyear, wrote Emre Gonen from Istanbul’s Bilgi University in Sabah Daily.
“At a time when the ‘greatest’ democracy in the world, the United States,is moving away from democratic principles, it is high time for Turkey andthe EU to get closer based on transparency and cooperation,” argued Gonen.
Experts believe that Turkey has to deliver strong determination to returnto a full democracy and European human rights standards as soon as possible.
For the relations to go back to track, “Turkey should recover its selfconfidence and return from an extraordinary situation to a normal one,”told Xinhua EU expert Dr. Bahadir Kaleagasi.
“The next accession report of the European Commission is set to bepublished in April, Turkey still has time until then to lift the emergencyrule,” said Kaleagasi, CEO of Turkey’s leading business and industry groupTUSIAD.
Nevertheless, in order to do so, Turkey will have to realign with Europeandemocratic norm and regulations and convince its people of the need toreturn to the roots to unlock the actual situation for a visa liberationthat Turks are been waiting for so long.
And this is not an easy task as roughly 69 percent of the Turkishpopulation does not believe in Turkey’s accession to the EU soon, accordingto a recent survey conducted by the Turkish Economic Development Foundation(IKV).
Only 31 percent of Turks believe that their country may become a fullmember, according to this survey.
“There is lack of trust in both camps, but we feel sure that this can beamended with increased dialogue,” a senior European diplomat told Xinhua oncondition of anonymity, adding that however, “the rule of law” should befully implemented, in a reference to the lifting of the emergency rule inTurkey.
“The EU project plays an essential part in Turkey’s global leadershipambitions” nourished by Erdogan, argued Kaleagasi.