Why Turkey's EU membership is doomed: Bloomberg
4 Min Read
Bobby Ghosh of Bloomberg details how Erdogan's behavior toward Europe and his inability to roll back on harsh policies may be the reason why he would stay out of the European Union.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaking to journalists in Istanbul Turkey on July 8, 2023 (AP)
According to Bobby Ghosh of Bloomberg, Erdogan's attempt to blackmail Europe only gives the continent more reason to keep Turkey out of the European Union.
Yesterday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sweden's accession to NATO is contingent on Turkey's accession to the European Union.
"We want all the promises made to us to be implemented... Turkey has been made to wait for 50 years at the door of the EU. I say to these countries that keep us waiting, I will say this in Vilnius: first, open the doors for Turkey to the EU, then we will open the way for Sweden [to NATO], as they did earlier with respect to Finland," Erdogan said to a reporter before heading to Vilnius for the NATO summit.
According to Ghosh, Erdogan's request was the most blatant form of blackmail – it warranted no thought, let alone assent.
Read more: US pushes back as Erdogan links Sweden’s NATO entry to Turkey’s EU bid
He explains that the US and its European allies should see Erdogan's EU proposal as more indication that Turkey's President is not a dependable friend inside international organizations.
The European Commission has flatly rejected Erdogan's request, reminding of the fact that NATO membership and EU membership are two distinct procedures.
Ghosh asserts that Erdogan's blackmail will only serve one purpose for the EU - slowing down the membership process even further for Turkey.
After having observed Erdogan's behavior in one elite club, Europeans are unlikely to welcome him into another. The Turkish President has long had resentment toward the Europeans for blacklisting him.
Turkey petitioned for membership long before he came to office and was approved in 1999. However, the ascent of his Islamist party alarmed members who were already wary of admitting a Muslim-majority country into the fold. Gosh believes that Turkey has a strong feeling, fueled by Erdogan and his AK Party, that EU membership is now out of the question – regardless of who is president.
Ghosh notes that Erdogan did make "some good-faith efforts" to ease European fears during his first term, enacting certain political and economic reforms while limiting the role of the Turkish military. However, the EU kept extending the discussions, claiming, among other things, human rights breaches. By the conclusion of his first decade in office, Erdogan had lost patience with the process and had become overtly autocratic, bolstering the case of European critics.
Things came to a climax in 2016 with an attempted coup, following which his reign became increasingly harsh.
Read next: Erdogan reviving Ataturk-era Turkey, waging wars and claiming hegemony
The European Parliament called for a stop to the accession discussions that fall. By 2018, the accession procedure had been stalled. Meanwhile, Erdogan's displeasure with the Europeans expressed itself in more bellicose statements. He declared that Europe was "sick" and "collapsing" and that they will "pay for what they have done."
He vowed to reverse several of the measures he had implemented to put Turkey in line with EU standards, including the reinstatement of the death sentence. There have also been other threats, most notably the repeated threat of sending millions of migrants into Europe. Ghosh believes that as of now, Erdogan is the most significant impediment to Turkey's accession to the EU. Although he insists that membership remains a goal, his policies have pushed the country further away than at any time in the previous 50 years.
