Turkey strives for full EU membership

By Azernews

By Kamila Aliyeva

Turkey will not give up on its plans to gain EU membership despite the recent obstacles, such as suspension of accession talks and PACE’s decision to reopen monitoring process, and worsening relations with the European Union.

Turkey’s EU affairs minister Omer Celik reaffirmed his country’s desire to become a full member of the European Union, Anadolu reported.

Turkey’s “strategic aim” in the EU accession talks is to get full membership, he said while addressing the 36th Turkey-EU Joint Advisory Committee in Brussels on July 18.

“The EU should support Turkey during this difficult period in the region by understanding the reasons for the fight against terrorism, by providing visa liberalization and especially by accelerating the accession process,” Celik said.

Accession negotiations started in 2005, but until Turkey agrees to apply the Additional Protocol of the Ankara Association Agreement to Cyprus, eight negotiation chapters will not be opened and no chapter will be provisionally closed. The talks have reached a deadlock in 2007 as Turkey was not ready to change its position on Cyprus while German and French governments also opposed the country’s full EU membership.

Turkey has to successfully conclude negotiations with the EU over 35 policy chapters including reforms and the adoption of European standards in order to achieve its goal.

Celik said Turkey was ready to open EU chapters 23 and 24 about the judiciary and fundamental rights as well as justice and freedoms.

He noted that it was “double standard” to criticize Turkey without opening these EU chapters.

Turkey-EU relations have intensified due to the parties’ close cooperation to fight illegal flow of refugees and migrants into the EU. The visa liberalization scheme for Turkish citizens and the speeding up of Turkey’s EU accession negotiations are also part of the migration deal.

However, Turkey’s 12-year-long attempt to become EU member-state was recently undermined as the European Parliament adopted a resolution on July 6 calling on to suspend accession negotiations.

Celik at the time rejected any possible proposals to cooperate in other areas with the EU instead of accession talks.

Turkey’s ties with the EU have worsened last July after a failed coup attempt. Relations further deteriorated following an April referendum which expanded the powers of the president. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's (PACE) recent decision to reopen a political monitoring process against Turkey also negatively affected Ankara-Brussels ties.