IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu made evaluations following the 20^th report on Turkey published by the European Commission. IKV Chairman Zeytinoğlu mentioned that the report involves significant findings and criticisms particularly regarding the political criteria. Beyond these criticisms, IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu emphasised that the European Commission, that is responsible for managing the EU’s enlargement process and regulating the relations with the candidate countries, has the task of keeping the enlargement process for Turkey alive. He continued his words as follows:

“Similar to the preceding 19 reports, the released report evaluates Turkey with regard to accession criteria. However these reports were not able to ensure Turkey to complete accession negotiations and to be an EU member. Therefore, beyond criticising Turkey, these reports should answer the questions such as ‘why this process does not proceed?’ and ‘what can the EU do in order to gain Turkey and contribute to the process’ success?’. Although the Commission is not political decision maker, it performs the tasks of carrying out the EU’s enlargement process and contributing to the development of the candidate countries during the pre-accession process. President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said that he is guarantor of the negotiations. Confirmation of Turkey’s candidacy to the EU and emphasis on negotiations’ objective for full membership by the report is important. In order to keep this word, it is expected that the Commission takes the initiative of relaunching the negotiations and rejuvenating the process.”

Chairman Zeytinoğlu indicated that there are key issues in accession negations and stated as follows:

“There are key areas in which Turkey should make progress again in regards to Copenhagen criteria. Rule of law, independence of judiciary and freedoms come at the forefront these areas. In these matters, Turkey should not only meet the EU criteria, but also accelerate reforms for the welfare and development of the Turkish population. But above all, there are fundamental issues that prevent the progression of Turkey and the EU relations. They are the efforts demonstrated by some of the Member States to undermine the process and the suspicion that even if Turkey fulfils the criteria, it will not be accepted for the membership. This situation weakens the faith towards the EU accession process in Turkey and hinders efforts to maintain the EU accession process. We identified this situation in the public opinion survey we had conducted in November. According to the survey results, while 78.9%of the respondents supported EU membership, only 31.2%of them expressed that the membership will become reality.”

While reminding that 2025 was pronounced as the potential date for the EU accession for the other candidate Western Balkan countries to the EUapart from Turkey, , and continued as follows:

“Despite the fact that Western Balkan countries such as Serbia and Montenegro started their negation process long after Turkey, the European Commission President Juncker put forward 2025 as these countries’ accession date. Yet, we know that these countries have serious problems concerning governance, rule of law and corruptions. Nevertheless, such a clear date is pronounced to revive the perspective of the EU membership of the Western Balkan countries. The emphasis that the EU membership is a real and reachable goal in addition to the assurance that this process will not be blocked by political reasons is necessary for Turkey as well.”

Emphasising that it is also designated in the report the areas in which Turkey has been backsliding in the EU criteria, IKV Chairman Zeytinoğlu stated:

“The term ‘backsliding’ has entered into the report’s vocabulary firstly in 2014. In that period it was stated that Turkey had been backsliding in the area of public procurements.  Afterwards in the report published in 2015, the areas of freedom of expression in the media and internet, freedom of assembly as well as freedom of expression were included in the backsliding areas. The list of ‘backsliding’ has grown in 2016 to comprise the areas of public services and human resources management, independence of the judiciary, business environment, freedom of association and prevention of torture and ill-treatment. The report released today reveals more areas in which Turkey has been backsliding in the alignment with the acquis. Overall, it is indicated that there was backsliding in the areas of civil society, public service and human resources management, judiciary and fundamental rights, freedom of expression, freedom of association and assembly, property rights, economic and business environment, information society, social policy and employment and external relations. As it is obviously seen along with political criteria, Turkey backslides in some areas of the chapters. Considering the crucial part of the EU Single Market within our external trade and FDI, we should stop the trend of backsliding in the alignment with the EU acquis as soon as possible and focus on ensuring further alignment.”

IKV Chairman Zeytinoğlu drew attention to another important point indicated in the report. “The last report, differently from the previous ones, describes FETÖ as ‘Gülen movement, designated by the Turkish authorities as a terror organisation’. Thus, EU’s approach to recognise Turkey's sensitiveness and concerns about this serious threat should be considered as a positive development in the Turkey-EU relations.” he noted.

In the report, the European Commission recognises the highly valuable contribution of Turkey to the EU by hosting 3.5 million Syrians. It is also stated that Turkey is moderately prepared when it comes to the Chapter of Justice, Freedom and Security, which covers the policies on border control, visa, external migration, and asylum; and Turkey ha-s made good progress on migration and asylum policies during the last year. Turkey’s role in controlling the irregular migration to the EU bears strategic significance. We expect the EU to realise the aim of a visa-free Europe for Turkish citizens by moving forward on the issue of visa exemption. 

We have to take the criticisms in the report on the rule of law and judicial independence seriously and take necessary steps to ameliorate these issues. In the report, there is the finding that the recommendations in 2016 on the judiciary and the fundamental rights have not been carried out. It is seen that almost the same recommendations are repeated in this report. Yet again, it is expressed that the area where the most backsliding took place is related to the situation of the judiciary and the fundamental rights. The opening of the 23rd and 24th Chapters, which includes the judiciary and the fundamental freedoms along with justice, freedom and security, in the Turkey’s EU accession negotiations is a request we have been repeating. As the Turkish society and business world, we expect the EU to demonstrate its sincerity and support for reforms to be carried out in Turkey by opening these chapters. As recommended in the report, the move towards lifting the state of emergency in Turkey would fasten the process.    

Business environment is also one of the topics that are emphasised on the report. It was expressed in the report which was released in 2016 that there was a regression in this area. In today’s report it is mentioned that, especially the deceleration in structural reforms, macroeconomic imbalances and scepticism in the efficiency and independence of the judiciary affect business environment negatively as well. We believe that the new incentives announced in March marked an important step toward improving business environment. In addition, taking steps towards lifting the State of Emergency in the near future will produce an extremely positive effect, especially with regards to increasing foreign direct investments.

In the report, the Commission reiterates its positive opinion on starting negotiations for the modernisation of the Customs Union with Turkey. We know that negotiations are hindered by some Member States. In this respect, it is positive that the Commission does not submit to political pressure and sustains its position in this area since 2016. "

IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu completed his words as follows: "There is a war is going on in Syria which is gradually coming to a deadlock and is in no way of losing its intensity. Finally, the intervention of the USA, France and Britain moved the issue to a new dimension. Turkey has a critical role in ending the war in Syria and Turkey and ensuring security in the region. By assuming a great responsibility in Syria, Turkey contributes to European security. It is the only country in Syria that can communicate and cooperate with both Russia and Iran as well as with the US and the EU. Therefore, the EU should assess this role better and shape Turkey's role in Europe's future in full membership perspective.”