EU silent despite AKP’s mounting sins

We have been trying for weeks to warn that selective criticisms leveled at Turkey by EU officials are disheartening pro-EU elements in Turkey. For example, the same officials who made negative remarks against the AKP over the closure case, have not been vocal in the face of some highly telling, and to that extent worrying, salvos from government quarters.

Granted the 2008 progress report touches on, almost with kid gloves and indirectly at that, Prime Minister Erdogan’s attacks against the media in connection with corruption cases, and on Chief of the General Staff Gen. Basbug’s threats to the media in connection with the fight against terrorism.

This, however, does not appear to have made much of an impression on the government, which is supposed to take Turkey closer to the EU by initiating reforms and making headway according to the Copenhagen Criteria. Put another way, the Erdogan government does not consider itself reprimanded by the Progress Report. It behaves, rather, as if it could care less about what is in the report.

However its "sins against the Copenhagen Criteria" are increasing, yet no one, other than European deputy Joost Lagendijk that is, appear to have much to say on this front. Just a look at the government’s recent record should send shivers up European spines. Especially among those who invested so much hope in this government.

w Prime Minister Erdogan calls for media boycotts because of the way it reported the Deniz Feneri corruption case in Germany, an extension of which clearly existed in Turkey and involved quarters very close to the AKP.

w Prime Minister Erdogan justified the use of sawed-off shotguns by individuals against pro-Kurdish demonstrators, saying citizens have the right to protect themselves. The fact that he is inciting armed violence does not appear to concern him much.

w Prime Minister Erdogan started to play the ultra-nationalist and told pro-Kurdish politicians to either respect the flag and nation or leave the country. He conveniently forgot there were times his party had been attacked for being "Islamist" by opponents who said, "Either respect secularism or go to Saudi Arabia."

w In the same vein, AKP Yozgat deputy Abdulkadir Akgul while arguing with pro-Kurdish deputy Hasip Kaplan in Parliament, went as far as saying, "I would of course take pleasure in shooting those who are against their own state and nation."

w State Minister Nimet Cubukcu is more concerned with slinging mud at Sarah Ferguson and the ITN network for exposing abuse in centers for disabled children in Turkey, than explaining what she intends to do to bring these centers up to EU standards. Having been caught out two years ago in a similar incident in Malatya, exposed by the Turkish media on that occasion, she clearly has done little in the meantime to improve standards in these centers.

w Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul came out with remarks justifying what amounts to ethnic cleansing by saying that if Greeks and Armenians remained in Anatolia, Turkey would not be a national state today. He totally disregarded the pain and suffering of Greek, Armenian and Turks alike in the past, and left open the question of his opinion on the Kurdish problem in this country, relative to his despicable views.

w The government continues to be reluctant to act in the face of mounting police brutality, torture, and abuse of women, which continues unabated, with impunity, and remains committed to the tradition of protecting those guilty of the crimes. When it does act, on the other hand, it does not do so on its own initiative, but because the issue has caused a major public outcry.

w The Prime Ministry tries to ban "undesirable reporters" from covering Prime Minister Erdogan by canceling their accreditation, even though it can not accuse the banned reporters of writing untruths or of fabrication. The government followed the lead of the General Staff in this respect, showing once again how much of a defender of the traditional status quo it has become. The bottom line here is that Mr. Erdogan wants "AKP friendly news" and loses control, both verbally and otherwise, when he does not get it.

Even this list and the relative silence in the face of it in Europe makes one wonder if Brussels is following these developments as closely as one would expect, with a view to giving appropriate signals at the right time to Ankara, to try and reign in some of the abuses and spur the government toward an EU perspective.

Granted the EU’s hard working envoy in Ankara, Ambassador Marc Pierini, said in a piece he wrote for the Daily News recently, "The Progress Report is not meant to comment on the acts and words of a given set of personalities, nor on specific events." He is absolutely correct about this, as the progress report by its nature is about principles and criteria rather than personalities. But what we are referring to here is other Europeans, be they from individual EU countries, the European Commission or the EU Parliament, who were so vocal on issues such as 301, Orhan Pamuk, the Hrant Dink murder and the AKP closure case in the past, but prefer to remain silent in the face of further serious abuses by the AKP.

Europe should not, however, be blinded by what appears to be support for the AKP, and against those elements it finds undesirable in Turkey. Especially now the Erdogan government has started to behave just like those elements.

The whole idea behind the EU perspective is positive change under the umbrella of lofty ideals, which include human rights and press freedom. If this does not happen, then the EU will start to lose its meaning, even for Turks who have supported this perspective strongly hitherto.