As Turkey’s relations with the European Union are strained over its democratic standards, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s support for Palestine only further exacerbates ties with the EU, according to Euractiv.
Turkey is a potential EU membership candidate, and Brussels would prefer Ankara to support rather than contest its position.
What the president says reflects badly here in Brussels. We always expect Turkey to align with us in foreign policy.
Erdogan, a devout Muslim and fierce defender of Palestinian rights, has toughened his criticism as the death toll among civilians in Gaza rises. He accused Israel of committing war crimes and recalled Turkey’s ambassador to Tel Aviv.
He led a rally in Istanbul organised by his ruling party just a day before the centenary celebrations of the Turkish republic on October 29.
In a report on the progress of candidate countries towards fulfilling EU accession criteria, the Union stated that Turkey’s unilateral foreign policy remained at odds with the bloc’s priorities. It found that Ankara maintained a very low level of agreement with the EU’s position on foreign and security policy (10 per cent) compared to 8 per cent in 2022.
“Its rhetoric in support of terrorist group Hamas following its attacks against Israel … is in complete disagreement with the EU approach.”
Analysts including Hamish Kinnear, senior Middle East and North Africa analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft, fear Erdogan’s stance on Israel and Gaza could upend his diplomatic relations with the West after winning re-election in May.
Erdogan’s stance on Israel-Gaza adds to growing tensions between Turkey and the West over longer-standing issues, including EU accession.
Turkey’s relations with the EU have been stalled since talks on membership began in 2005.
“Europe needs to get engaged with Turkey but it’s getting more and more difficult.”
Nacho Sanchez Amor, a leading MEP on relations with Turkey, stated that Erdogan’s stance has not gone unnoticed.
If you depict Hamas as freedom fighters, others will see the PKK as freedom fighters and then there’ll be problem.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry reacted to the EU report in a statement late Wednesday night, claiming that “we consider as a form of praise the assessment in the text that criticises our country’s stance on the Hamas-Israel war as entirely incompatible with the EU.”
“We feel the need to remind the EU, which is in the wrong place in history, that policies based on universal values, international law and humanitarian principles should be applicable not only to Ukraine or another region of Europe but also to the entire world, including the Middle East.”
Foreign policy expert Serkan Demirtas argues that the war in the Gaza Strip “shows that the differences in geopolitical interests between both sides are gradually deepening.”
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, at least 10,569 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,324 children and 2,823 women. Official figures put the death toll in Israel at nearly 1,600.
