Turkey plays destabilizing role in EU’s areas of concern: EP report

A report presented to the European Parliament (EP) along with a motion on the implementation of the bloc’s “Common Security and Defence Policy” (CSDP) pointed to “Turkey’s overall destabilising role” in the European Union’s areas of concern and its neighborhoods, Deutsche Welle’s Turkish service (DW Türkçe) reported on Tuesday.

The annual report on the CSDP, authored by EP Member Nathalie Loiseau, added that this destabilizing role threatened “regional peace, security and stability.”

The report strongly condemned “Turkey’s illegal activities and threats of military action against EU Member States,” in particular Greece and Cyprus, in the eastern Mediterranean, and labeled the country’s recent activities within the Cypriot and Greek maritime zones “illegal.”

Turkish officials argue that with its long Mediterranean coastline, Ankara has a greater right to the waters in the region than Greece, whose claims in the area are based on a small island.

Ankara deployed a research vessel backed by navy frigates last year, despite repeated calls to stop from Athens and Brussels. They withdrew them after the EU threatened sanctions.

Another report on the implementation of the EU’s common foreign and security policy, which is to be discussed in this week’s plenary session of the EP, said that “the prospect of Turkey joining the EU is unrealistic” and recommended “the formal suspension of accession negotiations with Turkey.”

Turkey’s relations with the EU date back to 1963. The country was named a candidate in 1999, and negotiations for full membership started in 2005.

The EU has suspended talks with Turkey due to the EU’s unhappiness with what the union has described as a decline of democratic norms in the country.

The Council of the European Union decided at its general secretariat meeting in December that no new chapters will be opened and no current chapters will be closed in the EU’s accession talks with Turkey.