Yusuf Kanlı: Turkey does not deserve this situation

Although the Turkish Foreign Ministry immediately invited ambassadors or charge d’affaires to the ministry and issued the necessary protests and warnings,  the joint declaration of ten Western ambassadors was regrettable. The European Commission's Enlargement Report and the Turkey country report were also criticized and even abhored in all respects and at all levels of Turkish administration. Nevertheless, it is worth reading and evaluating these reports and determining why we end up receiving such horrible texts, where we made mistakes.

From a candidate country, to a country that is expected to engage in accession talks, a country in the accession negotiation process and most lately to a country where the negotiation process has stopped but still in pre-accession country status and now it is unfortunately a "third country", should Turkey not make an assessment?

This is the summary of the Turkey country report, and all of these sad stages have happened in the last 20 years. We are way back from the level Turkish-EU ties were in 2002. We're not in an "enemy country" status, maintaining the so-called “positive agenda” but obviously, ties are not improving at all.  Neither the world is jealous  of Turkey, nor the accusations of some social media trolls that "Turkey is the fastest developing country, you only see negative developments" are not enough to save the situation.

The complaint that Osman Kavala has been in prison for over four years due to Gezi events, despite both European Court of Human Rights and Turkey’s Constitutional Court decided for his release, is very serious. The claim not only by the ECHR but also by the Council of Europe that freedoms were curtailed and people were deprived of their freedoms for very long period for political purposes is very serious. These issues were reflected in the Turkey country report together with trustee "tradition" in the opposition-held municipalities... Was there an expectation that those issues would not be reflected? Is this country so disconnected from reality?

While the enlargement report, perhaps as expected, did not include Turkey much, there was no mention of membership in the Turkey country report. Since the transition to the presidential system, Turkey's steady decline in democratization, however, has been noted, the presidential governance has been criticized for lacking a checks and balances system despite all its powers, and the Turkish Parliament was rendered so ineffective.

Unfortunately, there is only one emphasis on every page of the report: Regression in democracy, transparent governance, rule of law, freedom of expression and the press freedom.

Where did we come from? From a post-2002 image of a "conservative progressive political power that aimed to carry Turkey to the EU" and a country with an EU  membership perspective, we have come to a point, let alone even a "special partnership" relationship is no longer in the cards to a Turkey-EU relationship as if we have become third country, with no mention of membership...

On the other hand, the joint statement of the ten embassies – the United States, Germany, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, Norway and New Zealand – demanded Kavala's release in accordance with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decision, stressing that the continued delay of a verdict in the Kavala case undermines the principles of democracy and the rule of law, and that the case should be concluded fairly and quickly. Undoubtedly, such a statement from the embassies would constitute a clear intervention in an ongoing case and thus is an interference in Turkey's internal affairs, as highlighted in the Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If the Council of Europe or the European Court of Human Rights had made this statement, perhaps it would still make us unhappy, but that’s the role such institutions are designed to undertake. However, it is sad that such a statement has come from the embassies, even if we condemn it and even if the envoys are "cut to size" by the Foreign Ministry, they unfortunately demonstrate what kind of a country Turkey has become.

There is no doubt that Turkey should not be a country that deserves such reports or such derogatory statements