EU report slams Turkey over rights, freedom of speech

Brussels // The EU accused Turkey of backsliding on the rule of law, human rights and media freedom in a report yesterday, calling on the new government to take urgent action.

In an annual report to prepare for possible Turkish membership, the EU said that on political issues “the pace of reforms slowed down”, adding that some key legislation “ran against European standards”.

The scathing report on Ankara had been expected to be released in October but was held back until after the elections, in which president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP party stormed back to a majority.

Turkey on Tuesday rejected as “unfair” the EU report. Some of the observations in the report are “unfair, and even partly disproportionate and ignore the freedom-security balance required in a democratic country governed by the rule of law,” the ministry responsible for EU affairs said in a statement.

While it was Brussels’ strongest criticism yet of the surge in violence in Turkey, calling for a renewed peace effort with the Kurds and expressing its concern about the dramatic curtailing of press freedoms, the European Commission also praised Ankara for taking in millions of Syrians.

The report also had blunt advice for Mr Erdogan and its newly re-elected AK Party.

“The commission hopes to see an end to the escalating violence in Turkey and the return to negotiations on a lasting solution on the Kurdish issue,” Johannes Hahn, the commissioner in charge of EU enlargement, told the European Parliament.

It was severely critical of the domestic situation in Muslim majority Turkey, saying that under Mr Erdogan there had been “serious backsliding” on freedom of expression and that the judiciary had been undermined.

Turkey’s commitment to joining the 28-nation bloc was “offset” by domestic actions that “ran against European standards”, it added.

“The new government formed after the repeat election on 1 November will need to address these urgent priorities,” the report said.

It highlighted criminal cases against journalists and writers, intimidation of media outlets and changes to internet law.

“After several years of progress on freedom of expression, serious backsliding was seen over the past two years,” it said, adding that the “independence of the judiciary and the principle of separation of powers have been undermined since 2014 and judges and prosecutors have been under strong political pressure.”

Turkey had meanwhile seen a “severe deterioration of its security situation” including a huge suicide bombing on a peace rally just before the election, and the collapse of a ceasefire with Kurdish militants.

The report comes just over a month after the EU announced a a refugee cooperation deal with Turkey, including a possible €3 billion (Dh11.8bn) in aid.

The deal included pushing forward Turkey’s long-stalled accession process and speeding up visa liberalisation for Turks travelling to the EU.

Mr Erdogan, who became prime minister in 2003 and then Turkey’s first directly-elected president in 2014, was initially hailed in the West for transforming Turkey into a model of Muslim democracy and turning around its basket-case economy.

But a brutal police crackdown on nationwide protests in 2013, a massive purge of the judiciary following the corruption probe and constant concerns about human rights have cooled relations with both Washington and Brussels. Turkey applied for EU membership in 1987 and accession talks began in 2005, but Ankara has since completed just one of the 33 “chapters” needed to join the bloc.

* Agencies