from thefreeonline Sept 23, 2023 by Ali Dinçer * at Turkish Minute
People of Kobane bid farewell to 5 youths Murdered by Turkish drone… part of Erdogan’s Drone Marketing Program
Last week Turkish president and drone salesman of the year Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey could “part ways” with the EU.
It was one of the most confusing breakup announcements of all time since most people didn’t even know that the two sides were dating.
see also..Top Journalist goes to Turkish Prison Gulag for insulting Erdoğan
Erdoğan’s remarks were a reaction to the European Parliament’s annual report on Turkey, which contained criticism of Turkey’s grim human rights record…
- the arbitrary use of terrorism charges to silence dissidents,
- political control over the judiciary,
- ongoing invasion, ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide in Afrin, NE Syria..
- mass incarceration,
- denial of human rights for women
- mass torture in police custody and in prisons,
- restrictions of free speech
- imperial expansion policy in Syria, Azerbaijan, Libya, Iraq..
- ongoing repression and banning of Kurdish language, culture, music
- refusal to comply with European Court of Human Rights judgments,
- abduction of Turkish citizens from outside Turkey,
- media censorship, online censorship,
- toxic blackmail and bullying in international relations
- daily murder of innocents in Syria by drones, artillery and assassinations
- lack of access to a fair trial and a crackdowns on journalists,
- social media users, opposition politicians,
- academics, lawyers,
- trade unionists and human rights defenders.
- a few extras were added!…ed.
Or as Erdoğan calls it, “justice”.
It has almost become ritualistic for the EP to publish these reports every year and for Ankara to swiftly declare them “null and void.” In the past the publication was called the “progress report” because it was meant to document Turkey’s progress in terms of aligning its legislation with the EU’s legal standards as a candidate for membership.
As of 2015 Brussels appropriately dropped the word “progress” and began calling it the “Turkey report.” More recently, they renamed it the “Türkiye report,” giving in to Erdoğan’s childish caprice.
The procedure to prepare the report is fairly inclusive and transparent. First, the parliament’s Turkey rapporteur releases a rough draft. Then, MEPs have about a month to submit amendment proposals. They can prepare these proposals on their own or based on feedback from lobbyists, civil society or bribe givers (Allegedly. see Qatargate).
All the proposed amendments get published in an intermediate version. Ultimately, shadow rapporteurs representing party groups discuss the proposals and give the report its final shape.
Greece and Cyprus are member states, which means that MEPs from these countries get to obsessively flood the procedure with proposals focused on their regional grievances. This somewhat damages the report’s credibility since Cyprus is an issue where Brussels has absolutely no moral superiority.
In 2004 a UN-brokered peace deal designed to put an end to the decades-long division on the island was approved by Turkish Cypriots and rejected by Greek Cypriots. The EU punished the Greek Cypriots’ intransigence by immediately welcoming them as a new member and rewarded the Turkish Cypriots’ reconciliatory attitude by continuing to keep them under economic embargo. Because in Brussels things don’t necessarily have to make any sense (see Manneken Pis).
see also..Turkey’s toxicity and Europe’s paralysis ByTurkish Minute
The admission of Cyprus, a country technically at war and without territorial integrity, also became a roadblock to Turkey’s accession talks in the first decade of the century, taking hostage almost all negotiation chapters that matter, effectively destroying the reform appetite in Ankara and causing disillusionment in Turkey’s public opinion.
Ironically, as Turkey’s prospects for membership faded, so did the European leaders’ negative rhetoric towards Ankara. The anxiety of having to deal with an aspiring candidate gave way to the comfort of a fully transactional relationship based on horse trading as well as the occasional migratory blackmailing, verbal abuse and diplomatic humiliation.
For all intents and purposes, Turkey’s candidacy is dead, but no one wants to bother with the obituary and the funeral.
It’s not strange that Erdoğan is comfortable with the way things are. A closed door means he doesn’t have to explain to his people why they have to submit to what can only be described as a bureaucratic colonoscopy just to get a Schengen visa for a two-week vacation in Europe, even though his government’s calamitous economic performance and relentless attacks on rule of law obviously have a lot to do with it………………
.…..CONTINUE READING ARTICLE HERE….https://www.turkishminute.com/2023/09/21/opinion-turkey-toxicity-europe-paralysis/
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