Turkey on Wednesday rejected the European Commission’s findings on Cyprus in its annual enlargement report, which rejected Ankara’s call for a two-state solution and criticised its operations, presence and projects on the island.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said the findings defended the “maximalist positions” of Greece and the Republic of Cyprus and were “detached from reality and inconsistent with international law”.
The ministry also rejected what it called the EU’s prejudiced and unfair stance on fundamental rights and the judiciary in Turkey. It said the report’s findings were baseless and showed what it called double standards, particularly on political criteria. It added that the report’s criticism of a maritime delimitation agreement between Turkey and Libya was, in its words, null and void.
The Commission said that while the EU had advanced ties with Turkey in areas of mutual interest, legal action by Turkish authorities against elected officials, opposition figures and civil society had raised concerns about Ankara’s adherence to core democratic principles. The gap between Turkey’s stated goal of joining the EU and its backsliding on the fundamental political criteria for membership had widened further, and the factors that led to the standstill in accession talks in 2018 remained unaddressed, it said.
Turkey has been an official candidate for EU membership since 1999, but its accession has long been frozen over issues ranging from its human rights record to democratic backsliding, which Ankara denies. Several elected officials and mayors from Turkey’s opposition have been detained, arrested or removed from office.
The authorities have also clamped down on some media outlets and carried out operations targeting LGBTQ+ groups, which the government says aim to protect children and family values, but which have drawn sharp criticism from rights groups and the EU.
(With information from Reuters)
