The European Union said Wednesday it will carefully “recalibrate” its engagement with Turkey, citing “worrying developments” following a crackdown on anti-government protests, but insisted Ankara remained a key partner.
Turkey has clamped down on demonstrations triggered by last month’s arrest of İstanbul’s popular opposition mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu. Students and journalists have been among the hundreds detained.
“Following the recent worrying developments, we need to carefully recalibrate our engagement, while of course keeping open channels to discuss topics of mutual interest, as Turkey is a strategic partner for us,” said EU spokesman Markus Lammert.
The EU faces a delicate balancing act, wanting to deepen security ties with Turkey — a NATO member and candidate to join the bloc — while urging the country to uphold democratic values as part of the membership process.
“We will continue to raise matters and concerns related to the rule of law. We want Turkey to be anchored in European values,” Lammert told reporters in Brussels.
EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos said on Tuesday that she had cancelled a visit to Turkey for a diplomatic forum and a planned meeting with the Turkish foreign minister “because of what is happening” in the country.
On Thursday however, the EU will hold high-level talks on economic relations with Ankara for the first time in six years — something Lammert said was “an important step in our re-engagement.”
Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek is set to attend the meeting in Brussels.
Ties between the two sides soured after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s suppression of opponents following a failed coup in 2016 and tensions between EU member state Greece and Turkey over gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.
But with war raging in Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion, the EU-Turkey relationship has become more transactional, according to analysts, although neither side openly says so.
© Agence France-Presse