{"id":27995,"date":"2016-03-06T20:06:07","date_gmt":"2016-03-06T20:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/?p=27995"},"modified":"2016-03-06T20:06:07","modified_gmt":"2016-03-06T20:06:07","slug":"with-turkey-the-eu-should-look-before-it-leaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/with-turkey-the-eu-should-look-before-it-leaps\/","title":{"rendered":"With Turkey, the EU should look before it leaps"},"content":{"rendered":"

The international community is disturbed about Syria. The war has gone on longer than anybody imagined and shaken the world order in an unprecedented way.<\/p>\n

With millions of refugees knocking on their doors, Europeans are the ones that are seriously worried. \u00a0As I heard one British veteran politician put it last week in London, the refugee crisis caused by the Syrian conflict has already shattered the European Union.<\/p>\n

I would argue that it is not the refugee crisis that would cause irreparable damage to the EU, but the way it has chosen to deal with it.<\/p>\n

In its determination to stem the flow of migrants and refugees, the EU is prepared to put aside the fundamental principles of its union. This short-sighted policy is nowhere more visible than the EU\u2019s engagement of convenience with Turkey.<\/p>\n

Neither side expects it to end with a long-term matrimony but both are set to use the other\u2019s weaknesses to their own advantage.<\/p>\n

The 7 March summit between the EU and Turkey aims to win Turkey\u2019s support in \u201cthe full and speedy implementation of the EU-Turkey action plan, in order to stem migration flows and tackle networks of traffickers and smugglers\u201d.<\/p>\n

In return, Turkey\u2019s government will have a free reign to crush the remaining democratic institutions and it will be easier for President Erdogan to continue his authoritarian march.<\/p>\n

The European Council president Donald Tusk\u2019s visit to Ankara last week was a foretaste of things to come.<\/p>\n

On 3 March, following his meetings with the President and Prime Minister in Turkey, Tusk made a statement<\/a> on the outcome of his visit, in preparation for the EU\u2019s next steps dealing with the refugee crisis.<\/p>\n

Considering the shocking pictures of Cizre, razed to rubble amid Turkey’s efforts to crush Kurdish militants hit the headlines on the same day, the EU\u2019s silence on the matter and their failure to see the bigger picture in Turkey became blindingly obvious to everyone.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s leaders clearly got the message and they did not disappoint. Three days before the planned EU summit, and soon after Tusk left the country, Turkey\u2019s largest-circulation newspaper Zaman was seized using tear gas and water cannons.<\/p>\n

There was very little reaction from Brussels. One unnamed senior EU diplomat told the Financial Times<\/a> \u201cthe timing was a slap in the face\u201d and Johannes Hahn, the European Enlargement Commissioner, posted his protest on Twitter saying that human rights were \u201cnot negotiable\u201d for prospective EU members.<\/p>\n

In reality, there was no negotiation, only a straightforward trade off: Turkey\u2019s cooperation on stemming the refugee flow for turning a blind eye to degradation of the rule of law and freedom of expression in the country.<\/p>\n

Such a short-sighted policy seriously undermines the EU\u2019s credibility but more importantly, it poses a massive risk for contributing to Turkey\u2019s future instability.<\/p>\n

If Turkey continues to be dragged into an internal conflict by its government, already unchecked inside and now ignored outside, who knows what the future might bring?<\/p>\n

With its highly polarized population divided roughly in half and with millions of highly politicised Turks already living in the European Union, an unstable Turkey would pose Europe a greater challenge than anything else the Middle East has so far thrown at them.<\/p>\n

The EU may end up jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The international community is disturbed about Syria. The war has gone on longer than anybody imagined and shaken the world order in an unprecedented way. With millions of refugees knocking on their doors, Europeans are the ones that are seriously worried. \u00a0As I heard one British veteran politician put it last week in London, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27995"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27997,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27995\/revisions\/27997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}