Turkey bows to US pressure, cuts Russian bank ties

Yahoo – AFP, Fulya OZERKAN, September 28, 2022

 

Turkey's booming wartime trade with Moscow took a giant step back on Wednesday with confirmation that the last three banks still processing Russian card payments were pulling out under pressure from Washington. 

The decision follows weeks of increasingly blunt warnings from the United States for NATO member Turkey to either limit its economic relations with Russia or face the threat of sanctions itself. 

The US Treasury said last week that Turkish banks working with Russian Mir bank cards "risk supporting Russia's efforts to evade US sanctions". 

Two private Turkish lenders that began processing Mir after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in August suspended the transactions earlier this month. 

But three state lenders -- Halkbank, Vakifbank and Ziraatbank -- still worked with the cards. 

A senior Turkish official did not say when Russians would no longer be able to access their cards in Turkey at all. 

The three banks "are still processing (the outstanding) payments, but they have set a future date" for pulling out, the official said on condition of anonymity because no formal decision by the three bank has been announced. 

The decision follows a meeting headed by Erdogan last Friday that officially focused on looking at "alternatives" to the Russian cards. 

Shift in tone

The explosion of Turkish trade with Russia during the seven-month war in Ukraine has been a source of growing irritation for Washington. 

The value of trade between the two rose by more than 50 percent. Turkey has also agreed to pay for a quarter of its Russian natural gas imports in rubles. 

US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo paid a rare visit to Ankara and Istanbul in June to express Washington's worries that Russian oligarchs and big businesses were using Turkish entities to evade Western sanctions. 

The Treasury sent a follow up letter to Turkish banks and businesses in August warning that they cannot expect to have "access to the US dollar and other major currencies" if they trade with sanctioned Russians. 

Turkey has tried to stay neutral in the Ukrainian conflict and refused to sign up to Western sanctions against Russia.  

It has used this status to strike a range of economic agreements that have helped prop up the ailing economy in the run-up to June elections in which Erdogan will struggle to extend his two-decade grip on power. 

Mir cards offer millions of Russians that vacation in Turkey each year a way to access their rubles and pay for everything from restaurants to hotels. 

They are also increasingly important to Russians who are fleeing to Turkey as part of a new migration wave of men trying to avoid the draft. 

But analysts note a shift in Turkey's tone away from Russia in the past few weeks. 

Ankara last week strongly condemned the "illegitimate" polls the Kremlin is using as a pretext to annex four Ukrainian regions now under partial Russian control. 

'Fear of secondary sanctions'

Prominent Russian sanctions campaigner Bill Browder -- a businessman who left Moscow after one of his associates died in jail -- said the Turkish bank decision showed that the "fear of secondary sanctions is starting to work". 

"Turkish banks have abandoned Putin's Mir payment system out of fear of being punished by the US," Browder tweeted. 

"We need to roll this out far and wide. Chinese, Indian UAE and many other countries should understand there will be consequences." 

Russia developed Mir in 2015 to circumvent Western sanctions imposed following its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula. 

But Russian central bank chief Elvira Nabiullina conceded earlier this month that Moscow was encountering "difficulties" expanding its payment system around the world. 

Uzbekistan suspended Mir transactions last Friday citing unspecified "technical procedures". 

The card still works in Belarus and a handful of Russia's closest allies. 

Visa and Mastercard no longer issue new cards in Russia or process foreign payments on the cards acquired before the war.

Britain, Cyprus hail 'new era' on military land

Yahoo – AFP, 9 May 2022 

An aerial view of the United Kingdom's Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area east of
Larnaca -- it is one of two such areas on the island of Cyprus (AFP/Amir MAKAR)
(Amir MAKAR)

Thousands of Cypriots living on British military land will have the right to develop their properties under a deal to take effect next week, ending decades of unequal treatment, officials said Monday. 

Under the 1960 treaty granting Cyprus independence from Britain, the United Kingdom retained control of two Sovereign Base Areas covering three percent of the island's land area. 

These include not only the bases themselves but Cypriot communities home to around 12,000 people -- more than the number of British military personnel and their families. 

Non-military development on base land has until now been generally restricted. 

Cypriot property owners on base land were subject to "62 years of distortions and imbalances" which the deal to be implemented from May 16 will remove, Cyprus's President Nicos Anastasiades said at a ceremony. 

Residential, commercial and other developments will be possible under the arrangement. 

"It is a truly historic agreement", Anastasiades told the ceremony attended by base officials. 

British High Commissioner Stephen Lillie told the gathering that "a new era of non-military development" begins next week. 

"From that day, landowners in the bases will be able to submit planning applications and develop their land much like they can anywhere else in Cyprus," he said, describing it as a "levelling up." 

In a statement, British Forces Cyprus said that, for the first time, third-country nationals in addition to Cypriots will be able to own property, live, and run a business in the base areas -- subject to environmental, security and zoning considerations. 

Anastasiades reached an agreement in 2014 with then-British Prime Minister David Cameron paving the way for the changes being implemented from next week. 

In an interview with AFP, Anastasiades said the agreement did not mean an alteration to the 1960 treaty and did not require discussions with Greece and Turkey, the other 1960 signatories. 

He said it is simply changing the status of the residents in the base areas, "giving a chance for development which is a great thing. We are talking about a huge extent of land." 

The base areas cover 254 square kilometres (98 square miles). 

Cyprus, an eastern Mediterranean island, has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded following a Greek-sponsored coup. The Republic of Cyprus, whose overwhelming majority are Greek Cypriots, has effective control over the southern two-thirds of the island.

Joy in Armenia, fury in Turkey as US House recognizes 'genocide'

Yahoo – AFP, Michael Mathes, 30 October 2019

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was honored to join her colleagues
"in solemn remembrance of one of the great atrocities of the 20th century"

Armenia rejoiced but Turkey was furious on Wednesday after the US House of Representatives passed a historic resolution recognizing mass killings of Armenians a century ago as genocide.

With tensions already high over Turkey's assault on Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria, US lawmakers voted 405 to 11 on Tuesday in support of the measure to "commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance."

The move was a first for the US Congress, where similar measures with such direct language have been introduced for decades but never passed.

The resolution says the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923 amounted to genocide, a claim recognized by some 30 countries.

Turkey strongly denies the accusation of genocide and says that both Armenians and Turks died as a result of World War I. It puts the death toll in the hundreds of thousands.

Ankara was swift to condemn the measure, summoning the American ambassador and calling the vote a "meaningless political step".

"This step which was taken is worthless and we do not recognize it," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised speech.

"A country whose history is full of the stain of genocide and slavery neither has the right to say anything nor to lecture Turkey," he said.

Ties between Washington and NATO member Turkey have been strained by Ankara's offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, which came after US forces withdrew from the area.

'Historical justice'

The House also passed a measure on Tuesday imposing sanctions on senior Turkish officials involved in the Syria offensive.

The international recognition of the killings as genocide has long been the top priority of Armenia's foreign policy, supported by vigorous campaigning by Armenian diasporas around the world.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hailed the House move, tweeting that it was a "bold step towards serving truth and historical #justice that also offers comfort to millions of descendants of the Armenian Genocide survivors."

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hailed a US House of Representatives 

resolution officially recognizing the "Armenian genocide"

The Armenian foreign ministry said the resolution was of "profound significance" and thanked US lawmakers for "their overwhelming commitment to truth, justice, humanity and solidarity, and to universal values of human rights."

The sentiment was shared by Armenians on the streets of the capital Yerevan.

"I am so happy that the US has finally recognised the Armenian genocide," said 69-year-old cobbler Koryun Hakobyan.

"Other countries will now follow suit."

The hilltop genocide memorial that dominates Yerevan's skyline draws hundreds of thousands on April 24 each year to mark the anniversary of the start of the tragedy.

In April 2015, on the centenary of the killings, the Armenian Church conferred sainthood on victims of the massacres.

Kim Kardashian, the US reality star who is a prominent member of the Armenian diaspora and visited Yerevan for the 2015 anniversary, hailed the Washington vote on social media.

'Anti-Turkey groups'

"WOW LOOK AT THESE INCREDIBLE NUMBERS!!! THE U.S. JUST RECOGNIZED THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE!!!!" she wrote in a Tweet to her 62 million followers.

Turkey's foreign ministry suggested the House measure was the result of domestic politics in the United States, where people of Armenian origin number between 500,000 and 1.5 million.

"Its sole addressees are the Armenian lobby and anti-Turkey groups," the ministry said.

In 2017, newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump criticized the killings as "one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century," but in keeping with longstanding US practice he stopped short of using the word genocide.

Before being elected in 2008, Trump's predecessor Barack Obama had pledged to recognize the killings as genocide, but ultimately did not do so during his two terms in office.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that the truth of the "staggering crime" had been denied too often.

"Today, let us clearly state the facts on the floor of this House to be etched forever into the Congressional Record: The barbarism committed against the Armenian people was a genocide."

Opposition candidate the official winner in tight Istanbul vote

Yahoo – AFP, Gokan GUNES, April 17, 2019

Cheering supporters packed the streets to greet opposition candidate Ekrem
Imamoglu (C) at the Istanbul court where he received his mandate certificate
(AFP Photo/Yasin AKGUL)

Istanbul (AFP) - Turkish election authorities on Wednesday confirmed opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu's win over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AKP candidate after a recount of last month's disputed Istanbul election.

Thousands of cheering supporters greeted Imamoglu outside the Istanbul town hall after he received his mandate certificate, though electoral authorities must still rule on an AKP appeal for a rerun over alleged irregularities in its narrow Istanbul defeat.

"This is a new dawn for Istanbul," Imamoglu told the chanting crowds from the roof of a campaign bus. "Istanbul is proud of you."

He urged Istanbul residents to set grudges aside, promising to be "everybody's mayor".

"The people granted me the honour of leading the most beautiful city in the world... I pledge that I will repay my debt."

Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the most votes nationwide in the March 31 election, but the loss of Ankara and Istanbul to the Republican People's Party (CHP) was a stinging setback after a decade and a half in control.

The AKP has won every election since it came to power 17 years ago, in part by tying its success to strong economic growth and improvements in living standards during Erdogan's years in power, first as premier then as president.

But voters punished the party this time after a currency crisis last year hurt Turkish households, sent inflation soaring and tipped the economy into recession for the first time in a decade.

Defeat in Istanbul would be especially sensitive for Erdogan, who grew up in one of its poorer neighbourhoods and whose climb up the political career included being mayor himself in the 1990s.

The AKP had sought several recounts of the Istanbul vote, and the Supreme Electoral Council, known by its Turkish initials YSK, has yet to rule on the party's formal demand for a full rerun of Istanbul election. It was not clear how long that decision would take.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan (C) Erdogan had campaigned hard in Istanbul, 

presenting the vote as a matter of national survival (AFP Photo/BULENT KILIC)

Electoral authorities finished a recount of some Istanbul ballots late on Tuesday, but the CHP had already dismissed any challenges as without merit and urged the AKP to concede.

"I am so happy", said architecture student and CHP supporter Ilayda Pembe, 25. "I was beginning to think he would never get the mandate. A new day for Istanbul is starting."

Door to door

For supporters, Erdogan remains the strong leader Turkey needs and one who speaks for more religiously conservative Turks. He survived a failed coup in 2016, and a referendum in 2017 granted him wider powers as president.

Critics say he has eroded Turkish rule of law and democracy however, especially after a crackdown that followed the coup resulted in the detention of tens of thousands of people.

Erdogan had campaigned hard in Istanbul, presenting the vote as a matter of national survival. He backed Binali Yildirim, a former premier and AKP heavyweight, as the party candidate.

Imamoglu, a former mayor of a local Istanbul district, ran a low-key campaign, reaching out to voters door to door to talk over local issues. He is already being credited with having revived the opposition's profile nationwide.

Erdogan himself described the Istanbul vote as marred by "organised crimes" and last week called for the ballot to be annulled.

Soon after voting had ended, electoral authorities said Imamoglu led by nearly 30,000 ballots. Both he and Yildirim claimed victory as early results showed them in a dead heat.

Imamoglu's margin narrowed to around 14,000 after a recount of void ballots over the last fortnight.

The CHP said Tuesday that the final result was around 13,800 ballots in favour of Imamoglu. Each candidate won around four million votes.

Lingering uncertainty over the Istanbul result more than two weeks after the vote has worried foreign investors and weighed on the lira currency.

With no new elections until a 2023 presidential election, Erdogan's government has promised to focus on economic reform to achieve stronger growth over the next four years.

New border crossings open in divided Cyprus, first in 8 years

Yahoo – AFP, 12 November 2018

United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) officers patrol inside the
buffer zone that slices between the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus
and the Turkish-occupied north, in Nicosia on June 14, 2018

Cypriot officials opened two new border crossings Monday for the first time in eight years, the latest push for peace by the two sides after UN-backed talks collapsed last year.

Dozens of people from the island's Greek Cypriot south streamed across the eastern Dherynia border post, walking past United Nations peacekeepers into the breakaway Turkish-backed north.

At the same time, the Lefka or Aplici crossing opened in the northwest of the eastern Mediterranean island.

Ahead of the Dherynia crossing reopening, soldiers removed barriers wrapped in rusty barbed wire and a small group of riot police stood by.

But despite arguments breaking out among onlookers in the run-up to the midday (1000 GMT) opening, the crowd passed peacefully through the border.

The latest move was welcomed by Elizabeth Spehar, UN special representative and head of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus.

"Today is good day for Cyprus," she said in a statement.

Map of Cyprus

"These crossing points will play an important role in helping to increase people to people contacts, contributing to build much needed trust and confidence between the communities on the island."

The development is also seen as a vital step to reviving peace negotiations, which collapsed in acrimony in July last year.

"It's another asset to the peace talks," said Chris Charalambous, who was just 18 when war broke out in 1974.

Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern third in response to a coup sponsored by the military junta then in power in Athens seeking to unite the island with Greece.

For the first time since fleeing the conflict Charalambous was looking forward to seeing his house, which he said lies in a Turkish Cypriot military zone.

"I'm just going to walk down and then I walk back, I don't know if I can stand spending time in the north," he told AFP.

Cyprus has been divided for more than four decades and the two communities lived isolated from one another until Turkish Cypriot authorities cleared the way for the free movement of people in 2003.

Poroshenko, Orthodox patriarch sign accord on independent Ukraine church

Yahoo – AFP, November 3, 2018

Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko (L) leaves the Fener Greek Patriarchate
after meet Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew (R) (AFP Photo/
Yasin AKGUL)

Istanbul (AFP) - Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko and the Istanbul-based Orthodox patriarch on Saturday signed an accord that paves the way for the recognition of an independent Ukrainian church, provoking new fury in Moscow.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I had on October 11 agreed to recognise the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Moscow Patriarchate, a move that was welcomed with jubilation by Kiev but condemned as "catastrophic" in Moscow.

On a visit to Istanbul that will see him hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Poroshenko signed an agreement setting out the steps needed to formalise the recognition of the independence of the Ukrainian Church, known as Tomos.

"On behalf of the Ukrainian people, I am very grateful to His Holiness and to all the bishops of the Ecumenical Patriarchy for the extremely important and wise decision to open the road to God for the Ukrainian nation and its church," Poroshenko said.

"The agreement that we signed today sets the conditions so that the preparation to grant the Tomos will be done in absolute correspondence with the canonical rules of the Orthodox Church."

Poroshenko also tweeted: "Today is a historic day. We have reached an agreement on the cooperation between Ukraine and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which we just signed with His Holiness."

The issue is set to play a key role in Ukraine's March 2019 presidential elections with Poroshenko making Tomos a key issue as he plans a re-election bid.

The Patriarchate is based in its historic home of Istanbul, the former Constantinople and once the capital of the Byzantine Empire before the Ottoman Muslim conquest of 1453.

Batholomew is considered the "first among equals" of Orthodox patriarchs.

The Patriarchate of Moscow, which is strongly backed by the Kremlin, argues it technically oversees most of Ukraine's Orthodox parishes and has warned that independence would provoke a rift in global Orthodoxy.

Metropolitan Hilarion, who oversees the external relations of the Russian church, said the new accord was one of several recent decisions by Bartholomew "which lie outside the canonical domain and are exclusively political."

According to Russia's TASS news agency, he accused Bartholomew of "carrying out an order from overseas aiming to weaken and divide the unified Russian church".

The Ukrainian Church is split into three bodies -- one technically overseen by the Patriarch of Moscow, a fact the Kiev government considers unacceptable given its ongoing war with Russia-backed rebels in the east.

Ukraine and Russia have been at loggerheads since 2014 when Kiev street protests urging Ukrainian integration with Europe prompted the ousting of pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych.

Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea later that year and backed rebels who carved out two unrecognised breakaway regions in Ukraine's mineral-rich east in a conflict that continues to this day.

Ozil defends controversial picture with Erdogan

Yahoo – AFP, July 22, 2018

Ozil, 29, came in for stinging criticism in Germany for their shock first-round defeat
at the World Cup (AFP Photo/Luis Acosta)

Berlin (AFP) - Footballer Mesut Ozil said Sunday he had no regrets about his controversial photograph with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that sparked questions about his loyalty to Germany's national squad ahead of the World Cup.

Breaking his silence over the snapshot that caused outrage during the tournament, the Arsenal midfielder said in a statement on Twitter that he was loyal to both his Turkish and German origins and insisted he did not intend to make a political statement.

"Like many people, my ancestry traces back to more than one country. Whilst I grew up in Germany, my family background has its roots firmly based in Turkey," he said.

"I have two hearts, one German and one Turkish."

Ozil said he had first met Erdogan in 2010 after the president and German Chancellor Angela Merkel watched a Germany-Turkey match together.

"Since then, our paths have crossed a lot of times around the globe," he said.

"I'm aware that the picture of us caused a huge response in the German media, and whilst some people may accuse me of lying or being deceitful, the picture we took had no political intentions."

Ozil said despite the timing of the picture with teammate Ilkay Gundogan and Erdogan -- shortly before the president won re-election in a poll endowing him with sweeping new powers -- "it wasn't about politics or elections, it was about me respecting the highest office of my family's country".

"My job is a football player and not a politician, and our meeting was not an endorsement of any policies," Ozil said.

"I get that this may be hard to understand, as in most cultures the political leader cannot be thought of as being separate from the person. But in this case it is different. Whatever the outcome would've been in this previous election, or the election before that, I would have still taken the picture."

Ozil, 29, came in for stinging criticism in Germany for their shock first-round defeat at the World Cup.

Team boss Oliver Bierhoff suggested after the debacle that Germany should have considered dropping Ozil after his failure to explain himself over the Erdogan picture.

Bierhoff later backtracked, saying that he "was wrong" to put Ozil under undue pressure, but the picture continued to draw scorn from fans on social media.

Germany is home to more than three million people of Turkish origin.

#UPDATE Ozil, who has Turkish roots, had earlier defended a photograph with Turkey's President Erdogan that caused some to question his loyalty to the German team https://t.co/3XxTRNvvYH

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 22, 2018

Netherlands, Turkey resume full diplomatic ties

Yahoo – AFP, July 20, 2018

"It's good that Turkey and the Netherlands turned the page together and that we
 have restored relations," said Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok (AFP Photo/Bart MAAT)

The Hague (AFP) - The Netherlands and Turkey said Friday they were resuming full diplomatic ties for the first time since Dutch officials barred two Turkish ministers from attending an election rally in 2017.

In a joint statement, the two countries said their foreign ministers met on the sidelines of last week's NATO summit in Brussels and "agreed to normalise the diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and Turkey.

"To that extend the ministers agreed to reinstate ambassadors in Ankara and The Hague shortly," the statement said.

The Hague withdrew its ambassador to Ankara in February as relations plunged to new lows in a festering dispute that began when the Netherlands expelled Turkey's Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kayar in March 2017.

The country also barred another minister's plane from landing as both Turkish politicians sought to attend a Rotterdam rally of Dutch-Turkish citizens in favour of Turkey's April 2017 referendum, in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan narrowly won sweeping new powers.

Anti-riot police vehicles form a blockade in a sealed off area surrounding the Dutch 

embassy in Ankara on March 12, 2017 (AFP Photo/Adem ALTAN)

Erdogan at the time accused the Dutch of behaving like "fascists" in their treatment of the Turkish ministers -- comments which triggered anger in the Netherlands, occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II.

The Netherlands is home to some 400,000 people of Turkish origin, and the two countries have had diplomatic relations for some four centuries.

"It's good that Turkey and the Netherlands turned the page together and that we have restored relations," said Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok.

"The cooperation between the Netherlands and Turkey is essential on a number of issues including the fight against the Islamic State group, the risk of (jihadist) fighters returning from Syria, but also our concerns over the human rights situation in Turkey."

Dutch parliament poised to formally recognise Armenian genocide: media

DutchNews, February 16, 2018

The Dutch parliament is poised to explicitly recognize the murder of 1.5 million Christian Armenian citizens by the Ottoman empire as genocide after a long campaign by ChristenUnie MP Joel Voordewind. 

There is also majority support in parliament to send a Dutch minister to the commemoration of the Armenian genocide in Jerevan in April, Dutch media said on Friday. 

Voordewind is expected to submit a motion on the issue to parliament next week, but is already guaranteed the support of a majority of MPs, now the coalition has thrown its weight behind the plan. 

Experts say that the decision will further anger Turkey, which already has a fraught relationship with the Netherlands. 

The Netherlands recently withdraw its ambassador to Turkey and the relationship between the two countries has been strained since the Dutch banned two Turkish ministers from campaigning on Dutch soil for a referendum to give greater powers to president Erdogan. 

‘We must not deny history for fear of sanctions. Our country is home to the capital of international law, so we must not be scared of doing what is right in this matter,’ Voordewind told Trouw. ‘We are acknowledging history. That is not the same thing as casting aspersions as Turkey has done towards the Netherlands.’ 

The Dutch government currently refers to the issue as ‘the question of Armenian genocide’ and will continue to do so, RTL said.

Turkey and the EU: time for plan B?

Yahoo – AFP, Stuart WILLIAMS, January 14, 2018

Erdogan has begun 2018 in a more conciliatory spirit (AFP Photo/OLIVIER HOSLET)

Istanbul (AFP) - After an over half century accession bid, Turkey and the European Union are moving into a new period of relations where tighter cooperation in specific areas will be prioritised over Ankara's drive for full membership, analysts say.

Ties between Turkey and the EU reached a low point in 2017 with the membership process grinding to a halt and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing some key members, including Germany, of behaviour reminiscent of the Nazis.

But Erdogan has begun 2018 in a different spirit, bounding off in the first week of January on a visit to Paris and his foreign minister making a key fence-mending trip to Germany.

Meanwhile, EU leaders have urged a new spirit of realism, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying during Erdogan's January 5 trip it was time to end the "hypocrisy" that progress could be made on Turkish membership.

"There is an understanding on both sides that the accession process is dead and won't go anywhere soon," said Asli Aydintasbas, a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

"So we are essentially talking about a new format and a more transactional relationship with European member states," she told AFP, adding this would mean more emphasis on trade.

"Ankara sees this as such and entertains no illusions about revitalising the accession process," she added.

'Downsizing the relationship'

The July 2016 failed coup marked a watershed moment in the history of Turkey-EU relations, with Ankara accusing the bloc of failing to show solidarity and Brussels sounding alarm over the mass post-coup crackdown.

Erdogan met Macron in Paris last week (AFP Photo/LUDOVIC MARIN)

Erdogan has repeatedly huffed and puffed over the length of Turkey's EU bid, complaining that Ankara has been "kept waiting at the door" for 50 years as it watched ex-Communist states being let in without fuss.

Accession talks began in October 2005. Out of the total of 35 chapters needed to be closed to join the EU, 16 have been opened with just one closed. No new chapter has been opened since financial and budgetary provisions was opened in June 2016.

"It's clear that we must move away from this hypocrisy of thinking a natural progression towards the opening of new chapters is possible when this is not true," Macron said after his talks with Erdogan.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva, whose country holds the EU presidency, said Friday it was better to have a "realistic" discussion with Turkey about membership without "hiding the problems".

Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe and a former EU ambassador to Turkey, said Ankara "by its own choices" was no longer meeting the necessary criteria, especially on rule of law, in the wake of the post-coup crackdown.

"Essentially what we are witnessing now is the downsizing of the relationship from one between political allies to one between partners cooperating in a number of fields such as counter-terrorism, trade and refugees," he told AFP.

Hurriyet daily columnist Sedat Ergin wrote Friday Macron's words signalled a "paradigm change" in Turkey's relationship with the EU which, for the French leader, would now be defined "cooperation in pursuit of common goals" rather than enlargement.

"Just a name has not been given to this new format of cooperation," he said.

Incentives for Turkey without full membership include visa liberalisation and an upgrading of the existing customs union.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut 

Cavusoglu held fence-mending talks last week (AFP Photo/Tobias SCHWARZ)

But EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik said Ankara would perceive an offer of a so-called "privileged partnership" as an insult, saying Turkey would never accept a "second class status".

'Warming up to Europe'

Elsewhere, Turkey's hopes of a strong relationship with US President Donald Trump have been scuppered by rows including the arming of Syrian Kurds and a New York court case.

Meanwhile Ankara is aware its current pragmatic partnerships with Turkey's historic Ottoman rivals Iran and Russia are precarious while the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia has reshuffled the cards in the Gulf region.

For all the rows of the last year, the EU is still by far Turkey's largest trading partner, while Turkey is the EU's fourth largest export market and fifth largest provider of imports.

The meeting between Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel at least changed the mood music in a bumpy relationship, with Berlin's top diplomat hosting his guest in his folksy Lower Saxon hometown and treating him to a cup of home-brewed Turkish tea.

Gabriel had late December suggested a deal for Britain's relationship with the EU after Brexit could be a model for the future relationship of Turkey with the bloc.

"Turkey is warming up to Europe and there is a deliberate effort from leaders in Ankara to distance themselves from the acerbic language and accusations," said Aydintasbas.

Rutte: send EU accession money for Turkey to human rights organisations

DutchNews, October 20, 2017

Photo: Maarten Hartman

Some EU leaders want to give less financial support to Turkey in preparation for possible EU membership because of concerns about human rights violations, Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has said. 

Rutte told the media that this was the subject of the first day of meetings of the 28 EU leaders in Brussels. 

According to NOS broadcaster, he said on Thursday night that subsidies currently given to the Turkish government would be better off diverted to human rights organisations. 

The proposal to stop pre-accession funding comes from German chancellor Angela Merkel, who criticised the ‘absolutely unsatisfying human rights situation in Turkey’ but said she did not want to ‘break bridges’ or have a showdown with the NATO country. 

Rutte said that accession negotiations with Turkey are at a standstill. ‘They are comatose, and that will not change,’ he said. But he added that there is no consensus among EU leaders for a Dutch proposal to shut down funding to the country completely. 

Brexit is also on the agenda for the European leaders.