Accession process too long blocked by nationalism, now Ankara pretend a new start. With democracy and Kurdistan to be sacrificed in name of migrant crisis
by Emanuele Bonini
Turkey is a problem. Europe has to decide what to do with regard to a key player where democracy is far farer away. Key for migration, Turkey has today the power to destroy the European Union in a sense or another. Accepting the Country as a normal country, the EU would ignore problems such as respect of the fundamental rights and tolerance. Saying Turkey is not a Country to be not considered as credible would mean to see a lot of refuges coming to Europe. Turkey is blackmailing the EU, asking for a revitalisation of the accession process in return of an effective control of migrant flows. Europe needs Turkey for migrants, but can the EU need this Turkey? According to the European commissioner for Neighbourhood policy and enlargement negotiations there is not space for those who don't respect the basic rules of Euro. «Freedom of media is at the core of the EU integration process and is not negotiable», pointed out Johannes Hahn. «We have seen worrying developments in the last weeks in the run-up to the elections, such as the intimidation of journalists in various forms». According to him, «deteriorating media situation impacts the overall readiness of the accession country to join the European Union». Does it mean the European Union is going to use the force against Turkey?
New re-elected president Recep Tayyip Erdogan got the absolute majority, and found a new, stronger, political power he hadn't before the general elections. On the contrary the European Union is weak, divided, in a desperate research for a solution of the migration crisis. The European Parliament clearly said they don't want to sell Kurdistan off, pushing for a full respect of minorities in the country. PKK and media freedom are the main source of embarrassment for Europe. The 14th of October the European Commission was supposed to publish the 2015 ‘Enlargement Package’ with the annual Enlargement Strategy Paper and progress reports on all potential candidate countries, included Turkey. The progress report has still to be published and the European Commission couldn't provide a worthy explanation. The truth is Europe can't how to deal with a country too crucial to be left aside but at the same too far from European values. Any decision will bring Europe to a lose-lose agreement. Ignoring the anti-democratic behaviour of Turkey would for controls on migrants would be a political defeat, don't speed up the accession process would mean a new refugee crisis which can put unity of the EU at stake. We risk to see Europe accept democracy be watered down because of the present interest, and the present interest is to preserve the European project from fear of migrants.
Turkey is a problem. Europe has to decide what to do with regard to a key player where democracy is far farer away. Key for migration, Turkey has today the power to destroy the European Union in a sense or another. Accepting the Country as a normal country, the EU would ignore problems such as respect of the fundamental rights and tolerance. Saying Turkey is not a Country to be not considered as credible would mean to see a lot of refuges coming to Europe. Turkey is blackmailing the EU, asking for a revitalisation of the accession process in return of an effective control of migrant flows. Europe needs Turkey for migrants, but can the EU need this Turkey? According to the European commissioner for Neighbourhood policy and enlargement negotiations there is not space for those who don't respect the basic rules of Euro. «Freedom of media is at the core of the EU integration process and is not negotiable», pointed out Johannes Hahn. «We have seen worrying developments in the last weeks in the run-up to the elections, such as the intimidation of journalists in various forms». According to him, «deteriorating media situation impacts the overall readiness of the accession country to join the European Union». Does it mean the European Union is going to use the force against Turkey?
New re-elected president Recep Tayyip Erdogan got the absolute majority, and found a new, stronger, political power he hadn't before the general elections. On the contrary the European Union is weak, divided, in a desperate research for a solution of the migration crisis. The European Parliament clearly said they don't want to sell Kurdistan off, pushing for a full respect of minorities in the country. PKK and media freedom are the main source of embarrassment for Europe. The 14th of October the European Commission was supposed to publish the 2015 ‘Enlargement Package’ with the annual Enlargement Strategy Paper and progress reports on all potential candidate countries, included Turkey. The progress report has still to be published and the European Commission couldn't provide a worthy explanation. The truth is Europe can't how to deal with a country too crucial to be left aside but at the same too far from European values. Any decision will bring Europe to a lose-lose agreement. Ignoring the anti-democratic behaviour of Turkey would for controls on migrants would be a political defeat, don't speed up the accession process would mean a new refugee crisis which can put unity of the EU at stake. We risk to see Europe accept democracy be watered down because of the present interest, and the present interest is to preserve the European project from fear of migrants.
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