{"id":29259,"date":"2018-02-08T22:37:13","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T22:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/?p=29259"},"modified":"2018-02-08T22:37:13","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T22:37:13","slug":"can-turkey-and-eu-kiss-and-make-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/can-turkey-and-eu-kiss-and-make-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Turkey and EU kiss and make up?"},"content":{"rendered":"
It has been a while since we last heard about \u201canchoring\u201d, in the context of the faltering Turkey-EU relations.<\/p>\n
Just as we started to think that Turkey slipped its western moorings almost completely towards uncharted seas, there appears to be a lighthouse on the horizon, after all.<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, renowned for his fiery rhetoric and hostile posturing against Europe, will be meeting the EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council president Donald Tusk and Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borissov, whose country holds the bloc’s rotating presidency, in the Black Sea port city of Varna, on March 26.<\/p>\n
Turkey had been pushing for a summit in Brussels between the leaders of the three EU institutions and the Turkish President for some time; but so far, the EU had been reluctant to agree to such a meeting.<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s massive crackdown on civil society and press freedom and the Turkish government\u2019s hostile rhetoric towards Europe, made any significant rapprochement unlikely.<\/p>\n
It was neighboring Bulgaria, whose rotating EU presidency for the first half of 2018 that made such a summit possible.<\/p>\n
By holding the meeting in Varna, instead of Brussels, the EU is lowering the summit\u2019s profile. Nevertheless, it is an important sign that neither side is willing to give up and both are moving to mend their ties.<\/p>\n
When the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov visited Turkey earlier in the year, it was reported that he raised the question of imprisoned journalists, particularly the foreign media workers. He was said to have relayed discomfort of the EU leaders in talking to Turkey while the crackdown on free speech is continuing.<\/p>\n
The presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kal\u0131n said that they attached great importance to the Varna summit and they believed it would significantly contribute to the acceleration of the Turkey-EU relations in 2018.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the EU-Turkey summit in Bulgaria, Ankara\u2019s envoy to Brussels, Faruk Kaymak\u00e7\u0131, delivered a position paper in relation to the visa liberalization to Turkish citizens, an issue that has been effectively put on shelf since 2016.<\/p>\n
For Turkey to secure visa-free travel for its citizens to 28-nation bloc, 72 different requirements need to be fulfilled, among them reform of Turkey\u2019s anti-terror laws, data protection laws and an agreement with the EU police agency, Europol.<\/p>\n
The most challenging benchmark for Turkey is the change in the law on counter-terrorism, used widely for the crackdown on journalists and opponents of the government.<\/p>\n