Türkiye's path to EU: Back on int'l agenda Expert opinion on Caliber.Az

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on European capitals to open Türkiye’s "path to the European Union" before flying to Vilnius for a NATO summit.

"Almost all European countries that are NATO members are also members of the EU, and I appeal to countries that have kept Türkiye outside the EU door for more than 50 years to open our path to membership," he said.

Erdogan emphasised that the Turkish people have their own expectations and hopes that the bilateral meetings with NATO leaders in Lithuania will take a decisive step to fulfil the Turkish people's hopes for EU membership.

The US supports Türkiye’s bid to join the EU, the White House National Security Council (NSC) told reporters, commenting on Erdogan's statement.

"The United States has always supported Türkiye’s pursuit of EU membership and continues to do so. Türkiye's membership application and process is a matter between the EU and Türkiye," the NSC official said.

Sweden, too, has voiced support for Türkiye's EU membership, Haber7 reported, citing an agreement on the margins of a NATO summit in Lithuania.

Within the framework of the summit, the Turkish President met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. The trilateral meeting, held at the LITEXPO exhibition centre, was closed to the press. A joint statement was adopted as a result of the meeting.

It was announced that Sweden will actively contribute to Türkiye's EU accession process, as well as support the modernisation of the customs union between the two sides and the liberalisation of the visa regime for Turkish citizens.

The Kremlin's reaction is interesting. The gist of the statement on the matter by Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov is that Türkiye is not wanted in Europe and Ankara should not be deceived about this.

"Türkiye can be oriented towards the West, we know that in the history of the Republic of Türkiye, there have been periods of intense orientation towards the West, there have been periods of less intense orientation, but we also know that to call things by their names, no one wants to see Türkiye in Europe, I mean Europeans. Here our Turkish partners should probably not wear rose-coloured glasses either," Peskov told reporters.

Indeed, Türkiye has been a candidate for EU membership since 1999. And accession talks have been going on since 1987. After becoming the country's leader, Erdogan tried most actively to push the issue forward, but without success. Since 2016, the process has been virtually frozen.

What has changed now? Why has the Turkish leader decided that the moment has come to put the issue back on the international agenda? And how serious is his intention? Could this be a kind of peculiar trolling against Brussels?

Yashar Niyazbayev, editor-in-chief of MK-Türkiye, told Caliber.Az that he does not think Erdogan was in complete seriousness asking to open the EU doors for Türkiye.

"On the other hand, some kind of negotiations, of course, wouldn't hurt. But Ankara is more concerned about extending the customs union with the EU because Europe is its first trading partner. Therefore, it is very important for it. So far, this issue has not been very clear and required elaboration," the expert said.

As for the prospects of joining the EU, the pundit is not sure that Türkiye actually aspires to join the EU and that anyone can consider it as a potential member of this association today.

"There are many different reasons for this, and it's not even the fact that the country has completely different values, which are markedly different from the European values. Türkiye has a very large Muslim population, and they talk about it all the time, even if not openly. The European Union, after all, is a Christian club, and it is very problematic that Muslim Turks, especially the conservative part of the Turkish society, have become a full-fledged part of the European Union," Niyazbayev said.