VARNA – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday insisted Turkey stillwanted to become a member of the European Union ahead of a potentiallystormy summit with EU chiefs seeking to repair an increasingly fracturedrelationship.
European Union President Donald Tusk and European Commission chiefJean-Claude Juncker will talk with Erdogan at the Bulgarian Black Searesort of Varna with a litany of problems clouding their discussions. Topicexpected to be high on the agenda include the crackdown in Turkey afterJuly 2016’s failed coup, Ankara’s demands for visa liberalisation and thenear-endless saga of the country’s own EU membership bid. And a row overGreece and Cyprus that erupted last week has added another point ofcontention just days before the talks.
Before departing Istanbul for Bulgaria, Erdogan said Turkey was stillseeking to become a full EU member and blasted the bloc for what he saidwere “double standards” towards Ankara.
“EU membership continues to be our strategic target,” Erdogan said.
But Erdogan added: “We are going to remind them (Tusk and Juncker) oncemore that Turkey will not tolerate hypocrisy.”
*- ‘Mixed feelings’ -*
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, whose country holds the rotatingpresidency of the EU Council, said it was expected to be “a very difficultmeeting”.
Juncker said he was “looking with mixed feelings towards the summit becausethe differences in views between the EU and Turkey are many”. But he addedthat “we will have a frank and open debate with President Erdogan”.
Temperatures were raised last week after EU leaders condemned Turkey’s”illegal actions” towards Greece and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterraneanand the Aegean Sea. Ankara hit back at the “unacceptable comments” and saidthe EU had lost its objectivity on Cyprus, which is divided between theGreek-majority internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus and thebreakaway Turkish Cypriot north.
The statement on Thursday by the 28 EU members meeting in Brusselscondemned Turkey over Ankara’s arrest of two Greek soldiers and its promiseto prevent the Greek Cypriot government from exploring for oil andgas. Ankara and Brussels had in March 2016 agreed a controversial deal tostop the flow of migrants, in what was seen as a landmark in cooperationand which Turkey hoped would yield visa free travel to Europe.
So far this incentive has not been realised and Erdogan is expected topress this point strongly in the talks.
*- Looser partnership? -*
Brussels has repeatedly criticised the post-coup crackdown, which has seennearly 160,000 people detained, including dozens of journalists. Turkey,for its part, has accused Brussels of failing to show solidarity after thecoup and appears set on forging a strong partnership with PresidentVladimir Putin’s Russia.
In contrast to Erdgogan’s brisk evening meeting with the EU leadership,Putin is expected to make a full two-day visit to Turkey next week. Ankarahas agreed to buy air defence systems from Russia and Moscow will alsobuild Turkey’s first nuclear power station. In his comments before leavingIstanbul, Erdogan lashed out at “some circles whose intentions and goals weknow inside and out” who wanted to block Turkey from becoming a full EUmember.
Next month the EU will release its latest progress report, which is “boundto illustrate a substantial regression” in Turkey, Marc Pierini, a visitingscholar at Carnegie Europe and a former EU ambassador to Turkey, said in astudy.
During a visit by Erdogan to Paris earlier this year, French PresidentEmmanuel Macron said Ankara should settle instead for a looser”partnership” and suggested no more progress was possible in accessiontalks. Analysts were sceptical that given the current tensions there wouldbe any breakthrough at the Bulgarian resort.
“The Varna summit will provide a platform to re-launch the dialogue betweenthe two parties, even though no real breakthrough is expected in concreteterms,” said Jana Jabbour, professor of political science at Sciences Pouniversity in Paris and the author of a book on Turkish foreign policy. -APP/AFP