Shapur Zol Aktaf
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With Brexit Turkey Loses Its Biggest Champion in Europe
Turkish officials see rising Islamophobia and anti-Turkey sentiment in Europe
ISTANBUL—Turkey lost its biggest champion in the European Union as Britain voted to exit the bloc, leaving Ankara without a powerful sponsor in its moribund quest to join the EU and posing risks to the migration deal that helped curb Europe’s refugee crisis.
The decision heralds a new and complicated era for Turkey, a Muslim-majority country that embodied the fears of many British voters. Britain’s Leave camp had warned during the campaign that closer cooperation with Turkey would produce uncontrolled immigration, crime and terrorism.
Now, as the U.K. vote emboldens nationalists from France to Italy to the Netherlands who also want to leave the EU, existential threats facing the bloc endanger years of efforts by Ankara and Brussels to deepen ties and meet common challenges.
“The European Union’s disintegration has started,” Turkish Deputy Prime MinisterNurettin Canikli said Friday on Twitter. “Britain was the first to jump ship.”
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the U.K. decision highlighted dissatisfaction with the EU. He called on the bloc to evaluate the vote result carefully and embrace more inclusive policies.
“We are for the union to gather more strength and endure going forward—that’s important for European peace, regional stability,” Mr. Yildirim said in televised remarks from Ankara. He didn’t comment on Brexit’s implications for Turkey.
The British vote reinforced a feeling among Turkish officials that rising Islamophobia and anti-Turkey sentiment in Europe might push them to disengage from the bloc. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that Turkey could call a referendum to decide whether to continue accession talks with the EU if Brussels didn’t meet commitments to Ankara.
Turkey’s ambassador to the EU, Selim Yenel, said the fallout from Britain’s departure may crimp the EU’s ability to deliver promises to Turkey, including visa-free travel for Turks to Europe and re-energized membership talks. Brussels had pledged both steps in exchange for Ankara’s help to halt the influx of illegal migrants—mostly Syrian refugees—to Europe under a mid-March agreement.
“Of course, we want the EU to be strong, I think they can pull together, perhaps there will be some soul searching,” Mr. Yenel said in a telephone interview from Brussels before the vote. “We need leadership.”
The U.K.’s departure also means that Ankara is losing one of its biggest backers in the EU, Mr. Yenel said, characterizing the Turkey-bashing during the Brexit campaign as “storm in a teacup” aimed at mobilizing voters ahead of the referendum.
Britain’s Leave camp argued that Turkish membership in the EU was imminent, and would result in millions of Turks flooding the U.K., despite the European Commission’s explicit decision against any enlargement through 2019.
The prospect of visa-free travel for Turks to Europe, which would effectively extend the Continent’s borders to Syria, Iraq and Iran, was also deployed by pro-Brexit campaigners to rally voters concerned about Islamist extremists heading West to carry out deadly attacks similar to those in Paris and Brussels over the past year. Turkey and the EU are at loggerheads over visa liberalization as Ankara refuses to revise its counterterrorism laws to bring them in line with EU standards.
Yet even the Remain camp tried to play down Turkish admission to the EU. Prime Minister David Cameron backed away from a pledge made in Ankara in 2010 pledge to be Turkey’s “strongest possible advocate”; he said Turkish membership in the EU would happen only by the year 3000. His Treasury chief, George Osborne, ruled out membership in his lifetime because “Turkey has gone backwards.”
Since becoming a candidate for EU membership in 2005, Turkey has started talks with Brussels on just 15 of the 35 policy areas to meet requirements to join.
Turkey’s emergence as a boogeyman in the Brexit campaign rattled the Turkish leadership, prompting Mr. Erdogan’s warning that Ankara might end its decades-old bid to join the EU. Such a move would mark the end of EU influence in Turkey, where Mr. Erdogan’s party tapped the country’s membership ambition to enact a series of political and economic reforms that helped Ankara start accession talks.
But over the past three years, the Turkey-EU relationship has soured. Brussels has been criticizing Ankara for backsliding on commitments to human rights and democracy while Turkish officials have slammed European counterparts for applying double-standards and blocking progress toward full membership. Mr. Erdogan said Wednesday that the EU was keeping Turkey at its gates because most of its 78 million people are Muslims.
U.K. headlines on perceived threats from Turkey’s integration to the EU only reinforced stereotypes, contributing to a hardening of positions in Ankara as Turkish officials interpreted the mood in Britain and across Europe as hostile and insincere.
“Unfortunately, politicians are opting for populism,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday. “Our public is greatly disturbed by the statements coming from the European Union because of the rising racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/with-brexit-turkey-loses-its-biggest-champion-in-europe-1466772772
Turkish officials see rising Islamophobia and anti-Turkey sentiment in Europe
ISTANBUL—Turkey lost its biggest champion in the European Union as Britain voted to exit the bloc, leaving Ankara without a powerful sponsor in its moribund quest to join the EU and posing risks to the migration deal that helped curb Europe’s refugee crisis.
The decision heralds a new and complicated era for Turkey, a Muslim-majority country that embodied the fears of many British voters. Britain’s Leave camp had warned during the campaign that closer cooperation with Turkey would produce uncontrolled immigration, crime and terrorism.
Now, as the U.K. vote emboldens nationalists from France to Italy to the Netherlands who also want to leave the EU, existential threats facing the bloc endanger years of efforts by Ankara and Brussels to deepen ties and meet common challenges.
“The European Union’s disintegration has started,” Turkish Deputy Prime MinisterNurettin Canikli said Friday on Twitter. “Britain was the first to jump ship.”
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the U.K. decision highlighted dissatisfaction with the EU. He called on the bloc to evaluate the vote result carefully and embrace more inclusive policies.
“We are for the union to gather more strength and endure going forward—that’s important for European peace, regional stability,” Mr. Yildirim said in televised remarks from Ankara. He didn’t comment on Brexit’s implications for Turkey.
The British vote reinforced a feeling among Turkish officials that rising Islamophobia and anti-Turkey sentiment in Europe might push them to disengage from the bloc. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that Turkey could call a referendum to decide whether to continue accession talks with the EU if Brussels didn’t meet commitments to Ankara.
Turkey’s ambassador to the EU, Selim Yenel, said the fallout from Britain’s departure may crimp the EU’s ability to deliver promises to Turkey, including visa-free travel for Turks to Europe and re-energized membership talks. Brussels had pledged both steps in exchange for Ankara’s help to halt the influx of illegal migrants—mostly Syrian refugees—to Europe under a mid-March agreement.
“Of course, we want the EU to be strong, I think they can pull together, perhaps there will be some soul searching,” Mr. Yenel said in a telephone interview from Brussels before the vote. “We need leadership.”
The U.K.’s departure also means that Ankara is losing one of its biggest backers in the EU, Mr. Yenel said, characterizing the Turkey-bashing during the Brexit campaign as “storm in a teacup” aimed at mobilizing voters ahead of the referendum.
Britain’s Leave camp argued that Turkish membership in the EU was imminent, and would result in millions of Turks flooding the U.K., despite the European Commission’s explicit decision against any enlargement through 2019.
The prospect of visa-free travel for Turks to Europe, which would effectively extend the Continent’s borders to Syria, Iraq and Iran, was also deployed by pro-Brexit campaigners to rally voters concerned about Islamist extremists heading West to carry out deadly attacks similar to those in Paris and Brussels over the past year. Turkey and the EU are at loggerheads over visa liberalization as Ankara refuses to revise its counterterrorism laws to bring them in line with EU standards.
Yet even the Remain camp tried to play down Turkish admission to the EU. Prime Minister David Cameron backed away from a pledge made in Ankara in 2010 pledge to be Turkey’s “strongest possible advocate”; he said Turkish membership in the EU would happen only by the year 3000. His Treasury chief, George Osborne, ruled out membership in his lifetime because “Turkey has gone backwards.”
Since becoming a candidate for EU membership in 2005, Turkey has started talks with Brussels on just 15 of the 35 policy areas to meet requirements to join.
Turkey’s emergence as a boogeyman in the Brexit campaign rattled the Turkish leadership, prompting Mr. Erdogan’s warning that Ankara might end its decades-old bid to join the EU. Such a move would mark the end of EU influence in Turkey, where Mr. Erdogan’s party tapped the country’s membership ambition to enact a series of political and economic reforms that helped Ankara start accession talks.
But over the past three years, the Turkey-EU relationship has soured. Brussels has been criticizing Ankara for backsliding on commitments to human rights and democracy while Turkish officials have slammed European counterparts for applying double-standards and blocking progress toward full membership. Mr. Erdogan said Wednesday that the EU was keeping Turkey at its gates because most of its 78 million people are Muslims.
U.K. headlines on perceived threats from Turkey’s integration to the EU only reinforced stereotypes, contributing to a hardening of positions in Ankara as Turkish officials interpreted the mood in Britain and across Europe as hostile and insincere.
“Unfortunately, politicians are opting for populism,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday. “Our public is greatly disturbed by the statements coming from the European Union because of the rising racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/with-brexit-turkey-loses-its-biggest-champion-in-europe-1466772772
