Ankara answers the Commission report: the EU is “biased”, the positions of Greece and Cyprus “maximalist”

On the same day the European Commission published its report on Turkey, Wednesday, November 4, Ankara answered with a sharp statement. In its text (in Turkish), the Turkish Foreign Ministry says the report shows “once again” the EU’s “biased and unfair” attitude towards the country. These are the views of the Turkish side.

Turkish diplomacy rejects as “groundless” the Commission’s claims, in particular on the political criteria, the judiciary and fundamental rights, and attributes them to the “double standards” of some EU officials and an “inconsistent mindset that has lost its credibility”.

Barbs at Athens and Nicosia

The harshest part of the statement concerns Athens and Nicosia. Ankara argues that, as in previous years, the report promotes the positions of Greece and the Greek Cypriot side, which it calls “detached from reality”, “maximalist” and incompatible with international law, while ignoring the “legitimate rights and interests” of Turkey and of the pseudo-state in the occupied north. It adds that the EU cannot contribute to efforts to solve the Cyprus problem as long as it adopts the Greek Cypriot side’s stance “unconditionally”.

On the Eastern Mediterranean, the ministry writes that the report’s assessments are “entirely contrary” to international law and that what it says about the Turkey-Libya memorandum “has no validity”. The memorandum itself has been declared null and void by the EU and the countries of the region (see also the Bahçeli statement).

The Commission report that Ankara is answering records, among other things, a significant rise in violations of Greek airspace and territorial waters, the repeat of overflights above Greek islands, the casus belli that remains in force, the incorporation of “Blue Homeland” into school textbooks and the obstruction of surveys for the GSI cable; see the Commission findings in our separate report. Giorgos Gerapetritis also spoke about the cable on Wednesday, saying that Turkey will find Greece opposite it if it tries to obstruct it.

Satisfaction on the economy and defence

The statement is not wholly negative. The ministry considers “significant” the Commission’s findings on the progress of Turkish economic and monetary policy, on a “well-functioning market economy” and on the country’s capacity to cope with competitive pressure within the Union. It also welcomes the references to Turkey’s role in connectivity, in the resilience of supply and value chains and in defence and security, and, citing the report’s economic and trade data, stresses again Turkey’s “fair and legitimate expectation” that the Customs Union be modernised.

In closing, Ankara asks that relations with the EU be shaped “beyond narrow political calculations and unilateral approaches” and calls on Brussels to turn the dialogue that has intensified recently into “concrete decisions” that strengthen the country’s accession prospects.