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Turkey
Photo: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives before a meeting with European leaders in Brussels, Belgium on March 9, 2020. File photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The European Union threatened Turkey with “political and economic consequences” if Ankara does not take steps to improve relations with Europe, in a report released on Monday ahead of an EU summit this week. The report also criticized the deterioration of human rights in Turkey and court actions against the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
If Turkey does “not move forward constructively in developing a genuine partnership with the EU, but instead return to renewed unilateral actions or provocations in breach of international law, aimed at causing prejudice to the interests of the EU and its Member States, in particular in the Eastern Mediterranean,” then the EU could carry out “smart, scalable yet reversible,” measures against Turkey, read the European Commission report.
Sectors the EU could potentially target include tourism and energy.
Ankara on Saturday withdrew from the Istanbul Convention combatting violence against women and earlier this month Turkey’s top prosecutor filed an indictment to ban the HDP.
The EU report said Turkey, especially after the 2016 attempted coup, is drifting further away from acceding to the European Union as “the rule of law, respect of human rights and the independence of the judiciary have continuously deteriorated, amidst a growing centralization of power.”
“In addition, 59 out of the 65 democratically elected mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were removed and replaced by government-appointed trustees. On 17 March, the Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation formally requested the dissolution of the HDP,” added the report.
The 609-page court filing from Chief Prosecutor Bekir Sahin claims that HDP members have attempted to “disrupt and eliminate” the unity of the Turkish state through their statements and activities. It also seeks to ban 600 HDP members from engaging in politics for five years.
On March 2, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a new action plan on human rights. The EU report said the plan falls short: “it does not address key shortcomings identified regarding human rights, the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law situation overall,” referring to jailed former HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtas and human rights activist Osman Kavala.
Istanbul’s Bakirkoy Court on Monday sentenced Demirtas to an additional three and a half years in jail on charges of “insulting the president” because of statements he made in 2015.
Having been held in jail since November 2016 for his alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered by Ankara to be a terrorist organization, Demirtas faces up to 142 years in jail on multiple terror charges of the type often leveled against members of the HDP and supporters of Kurdish rights in Turkey.
The EU report also discusses the actions of Turkey in neighboring countries, including the Kurdistan Region and the Armenia-Azerbaijan war in Nagorno Karabakh. Turkey’s role in that conflict led to “further questioning of Turkey’s regional role” as Ankara “departed from promoting a peaceful settlement and supported Azerbaijan’s push for a military solution,” the report stated.
In northern Syria and Kurdish-administered Rojava, the EU questioned Turkey’s military activities that have caused “large-scale displacements and reports of human rights abuses against the civilian population.”
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