EU has to freeze accession talks with Turkey: Top official

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan) – Calling the situation in Turkey “dire” and mentioning “the serious backlash of the rule of law” in the country, a top European Union official on Wednesday called for the suspension of accession talks with Ankara.

Member of the European Parliament and EU’s rapporteur on Turkey Kati Piri said the Turkish Government was drifting away “more and more from European values” such as the respect for human rights and media freedom.

Turkey and the EU started accession negotiations in 2005 with little progress made since.

Piri’s comments followed a Wednesday annual European Commission (EC) report on Turkey which read the settlement of the Kurdish issue through a political process was the only way forward.

The EC report presented key findings regarding core issues in Turkey. Among them the situation in the Kurdish region, civil society, judicial system, human rights, and freedom of expression and media.

The EC, which is the legislative body of the EU, told Turkey “its fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) needed to be proportionate and must respect human rights.”

Moreover, the EC stated the situation in the Kurdish region remained one of the most critical challenges for the country.

“Almost all critical media outlets have been closed, and Turkey is again the world’s top jailer of journalists; more than 100,000 people have been dismissed and 35,000 arrested without due process,” said Piri.

Piri, who was labeled by Turkey’s EU Minister Omer Celik as “racist and shortsighted” for earlier comments regarding the Turkish arrests and subsequent imprisonment of leaders and lawmakers of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), restated that Kurdish MPs were jailed for using their freedom of expression.

“The government in Ankara is shutting the door to the European Union with its actions,” Piri said.

“In reaction, the EU has to immediately freeze the accession talks until the Turkish government returns to the path of respect for the rule of law and human rights,” she added.

“We believe that the EU must draw political consequences from the current situation,” continued a statement by Piri’s office.

Turkey’s Celik on his part slammed the EC report, describing it as “far from being constructive.”

“We cannot accept a phrase such as the disproportionate use of forces regarding the fight against the PKK terror group,” he stated.

“This phrase is a document of shame for the EU institutions, no matter how it found its way into the report,” blasted Celik.

On Tuesday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his supporters “not to heed what European officials say and listen to what Allah says.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany