The reaction that emerges from within European values

It is known that the decision recently adopted by the European Parliament, recommending the freezing of Turkey's EU membership process, has no meaning or binding force either for Turkey's elected government or for Turkish society. In fact, a reaction had long since formed in various segments of Turkish society because of the double standards the EU applied to Turkey throughout the process. In a sense, this scandalous decision of the EP has also reinforced the justification of the growing reaction and suspicion toward the EU among the Turkish people.

The history of Turkey's relations with Europe is essentially as old as Turkey's own history. Let us not go back that far. The Ankara Agreement, signed on 12 September 1963, tied Turkey's full membership process to a timetable. But Europe never respected this timetable; as the game went on, it kept changing the rules of the game and putting forward additional conditions and demands that had not existed before. While the membership application of Greece, which had applied for membership together with Turkey, reached its conclusion within the agreed timetable, Turkey went on waiting.

The 12 September 1980 coup provided the pretext for keeping Turkey waiting at Europe's door. This was an apparently strong and justified pretext, and it made it possible to keep Turkey occupied.

Never mind the present support for FETÖ and the criticisms that Turkey is drifting away from democracy because of the measures taken against FETÖ, which have turned into a new pretext. Had the FETÖ coup attempt succeeded, a new pretext for stringing Turkey along would have been created this time too, on the ground that there had been a coup

.

When, after Turkey returned to democratic processes, it intended to apply "shock therapy" to relations with the European Communities during the Özal period, the answer it received was astonishing. In the person of Özal, Turkey was told that Europe was in a very important process, that it was focused on deepening and integration within itself and therefore had no enlargement agenda. This answer, which in a way tacitly accepted the justification of Turkey's demand that certain obligations arising from the agreement signed with Turkey be fulfilled, was also an expression of the fact that the rules of the game had once again been changed for Turkey.

The EU, which at the 1997 Summit ignored the Agreements signed with Turkey and decided that Turkey was not qualified for full membership, suddenly decided in 1999 that Turkey was qualified for full membership

. Meanwhile, let us not fail to note that the EU, which resorted to all kinds of tricks to keep Turkey out of the Union, while planning to benefit from Turkey's military capacity in operations to be carried out within the framework of NATO, also tried to leave Turkey outside the decision-making mechanisms because it was not an EU member.

This is in fact a summary of the role that a segment of the EU has assigned to Turkey.

What is expected of Turkey is to serve as a buffer between the EU and crisis regions, to absorb or prevent a population that might head toward Europe, and, if refugees or migrants are to be admitted, to help select and take the most qualified from among those in Turkey, which is used like a waiting room. A Turkey stable enough not to cause Europe a crisis, yet unstable enough not to be able to resist Europe. This is also the reason they are disturbed by President Erdoğan's upright and dignified stance, which in their view "smacks of dictatorship." They too know Erdoğan's organic unity with his own people, and they too know that Erdoğan's real upright stance is against them, not against his people.

When you examine the political criteria section in particular of the Progress Report published on Turkey, you can see that the report was not prepared in good faith, and moreover that those who prepared it do not know Turkey at all. The opinions of those who prepared the report about Turkey are on a par with those of an average European full of hatred toward Turkey. It is Turkey's right to question the legitimacy of a decision by the EP that was taken on the basis of this report. Because what we have here is a complete case of "weighing a dirham on a scale of dung" (tezekten terazinin dirhemi).

It is very clear that there is an asymmetrical situation in Turkey-EU relations. What creates this asymmetrical situation is that the EU has not yet been able to make a decision about Turkey.

This state of indecision causes lurching and, even worse, nonsense. Our President Mr. Erdoğan was pointing to precisely this situation, on account of this two-faced attitude of the EU, as early as 2008-2009, when he said

"We will rename the Copenhagen Criteria the Ankara Criteria and carry on our way."

At the point reached, we can understand that as the EU moves away from democracy and human rights, Turkey is not following in its wake. For Turkey, the EU was not an end but a catalyst, an instrument, in matters such as raising the level of prosperity, improving standards of democracy and human rights, and normalizing civil-military relations.

Therefore the EU should step back from these bad bully threats and face reality. If the EU attaches even a little value to its own claims and values, it should see that these values are under a severe test vis-a-vis Turkey.

If it keeps going along with its own populist agenda against Turkey, the place where it will be stuck is nothing other than a narrow medieval crusader mentality. This means complete reaction (irtica) for the EU.

Look at the situation: the only possibility that can save the EU from this reaction is Turkey. In this respect, the risk awaiting a Turkey without the EU cannot even be compared with that awaiting an EU without Turkey.

THE 11TH DAY OF THE DISASTER IN ŞİRVAN

At the site of the mining disaster in Şirvan, the hopeful waiting continues patiently. Yesterday the bodies of two workers, and today the body of one worker, were reached. There are still 5 people under the earth. AFAD teams are continuing their work 24 hours a day with all their technological means. In addition to the ministers who came earlier, yesterday the esteemed wife of our President,

Mrs. Emine Erdoğan, Energy Minister Mr. Berat Albayrak and his wife Mrs. Esra Albayrak, Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Veysi Kaynak, and Minister of Family and Social Policies Mrs. Fatma Betül Sayan

visited the mine site, saw the search and rescue work on the spot, and met with the families. Their arrival was a source of morale in its own right for the miners' relatives and the workers.

Meanwhile, when listing the names that became heroes the previous day, there were two more people we cannot fail to mention.

Siirt Brigade Commander Brigadier General Selçuk Yavuz

and

Energy Ministry Press Advisor Sevda Güner

. In particular

Güner

, with her magnificent skill in communication and dialogue with the workers' relatives from the first hours of the incident, established a firm throne in everyone's heart.