IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu criticised the view of German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel regarding his proposal suggesting UK’s prospected agreement which would be signed with the EU after Brexit as a model also for Turkey.  IKV Chairman Zeytinoğlu indicated that other forms of relationship models should not be blended with Turkey’s EU membership process.

IKV Chairman continued his statement as follows:

“A new model is attempted to be created for Turkey through the Brexit negotiations in the recent period. Lastly, we witnessed German Foreign Minister Gabriel’s statement concerning the issue. Similarly, Boyko Borisov, Prime Minister of Bulgaria, that would be holding the EU Presidency between January-June 2018, proposed a special agreement with Turkey. We fully disagree with this kind of statements and remarks. As a specialised civil society and research institution following Turkey’s EU process for 52 years, we perceive these approaches extremely unfortunate and undesirable.”

Moreover, IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu reminded even an article of the Association Agreement which was signed in 1963 referring to membership. Hence, he enunciated that the main structure of Turkey-EU relations is the accession process within the framework of membership goal. Ayhan Zeytinoğlu proceeded his words by expressing that:

“Since the signature of Ankara Agreement, Turkey’s EU membership objective has been agreed upon by the state and society. It has become the basic strategy of Turkey-EU relations. All of the various aspects in our relations with the EU including partnership, visa liberalisation and the Customs Union are taken ultimately into consideration to serve the membership objective. To say the least, ignoring this basic objective and strategy or easily thinking to replace it with a different model is an inconvenient approach. The model that will be designed for the UK following Brexit is for a country that leaves the EU voluntarily. A different model can also be stipulated for a country such as Ukraine that takes part in the EU neighbourhood area without being a candidate country to the EU. However, these are never convenient for Turkey that has revealed willingness to be an EU member, been declared as a candidate country and started accession negotiations. We convey this fundamental distinction to our European counterparts on all occasions.

However, such statements delivered by Foreign Minister of the EU’s locomotive country, Germany and Prime Minister of a country assuming the EU’s Presidency raise concern. In order to prevent this kind of statements and approaches, Turkey has to put the EU reforms on the agenda again and to take the necessary steps for the consolidation of values such as democracy, human rights and the rule of law determinedly.”