MEP Kati Piri's interview with Turkey's independent media BirGün

MELTEM YILMAZ

@meltemmmylmz

Turkey has been going through a very critical stage lately: oppression and silencing of all corners of opposition in the country; stagnation of peace process on the Kurdish question; a shaky foreign policy that led to major entanglements at different times with different actors; a massive crackdown involving hundreds of thousands of people; and, lastly, a truly controversial constitutional amendments process proposed by Turkey’s current government for bringing about a shift to presidential system.

As BirGün, we asked MEP for the Labor Party and Turkey rapporteur Kati Piri for her comments about some of these pressing issues of the day.

In these days, the most important agenda topic of Turkey is constitutional amendments package which also suggest a shift to a presidential government system. This proposed transition is interpreted by the opposing party as “transition to dictatorship”. What is your assessment about this subject? What will Turkey approve by approving this constitution?

The European Union has no preference for either a parliamentary or a presidential system in any of the candidate countries. However, both opposition parties and civil society in Turkey have expressed the fear that adoption of the current constitutional amendment package would lead to the erosion of the separation of powers and the abolition of parliamentary accountability.
Concentrating more and more power in the hands of one institution, namely the presidency, while weakening the democratic checks in a society, will further weaken the rule of law in the country.

How do you interpret the European Parliament’s adoption of the proposal suggesting the temporary suspension of Turkey’s negotiations with the European Union?

It’s a pity we have come to this point in our relationship. The European Parliament has always taken the accession talks very seriously - during the last decade we have continuously called for the opening of the crucial chapters dealing with rule of law and fundamental rights.

But let’s be honest, Turkey would currently not even meet the opening benchmarks. During the last three years, we have seen a steady decline of the rule of law in Turkey - which further accelerated in the aftermath of the coup attempt on 15 July.

With the freedom of media having received a major blow, more than 140 journalists in jail and ten parliamentarians arrested, the European Parliament had no other option than to call for the temporary suspension of the accession talks. As this can currently not be a credible process.

However, we have not called to stop the accession process all together or to stop our dialogue. It is the political signal we wanted to send to the Turkish government: if you’re serious about wanting to join the European Union, this is not the way forward. I believe the message was clear and I hope that the Turkish government will return to the path of democratic reforms.

Our position is also not a final conclusion. The European Parliament has committed to review its position as soon as the state of emergency is lifted.

On the other hand, when you consider this case together with the assertions on Shanghai Five, does Turkey seem like selecting a Eurasian path or does the loss of faith in EU in the eye of public influence the government as well? What is your opinion?

The European Union has made many mistakes in the accession process, and has not always treated Turkey fairly. As soon as the negotiations were opened, some leading EU politicians immediately stated that the process could never lead to EU accession. Furthermore, the unresolved Cyprus issue has been a blockage all the way for fruitful negotiations to take place.

While technocrats from Brussels and Ankara kept ‘negotiating’, the general public both in Turkey and in many EU member states stopped believing in the process.

It is crucial to regain trust, and to intensify EU-Turkey cooperation. Since Atatürk, Turkey has been Western-oriented. It is a member of NATO, member of the Council of Europe, and a candidate country for the EU. That means that in terms of security, trade and values, Turkey is anchored to other Western democracies. I don’t believe the Turkish population wants a radical change in this regard.

Turkey’s foreign policy witnessed a dizzying traffic in the last year. Developments following the downing of a war plane of Russia by Turkey were then eventually followed by the Turkish military’s intervention in Syria through Operation Euphrates Shield. How do you evaluate Turkey’s foreign policy attempts with regards to Syria?

The war in Syria is one of the most tragic events of our times. The international community as a whole failed to stop the killing of 400.000 people. Half of the Syrian population had to flee their homes. Turkey has shown great hospitality by hosting 2.7 million refugees within its borders.

I hope the recent agreement on the cessation of hostilities, brokered and guaranteed by Turkey and Russia, will hold and be fully implemented by all parties to the conflict.

Next week’s meeting in Astana could, if fully inclusive, contribute to a successful resumption of UN-led intra-Syrian talks.

Many HDP (People’s Democratic Party) executives are in prison today. How do you assess the current stage of the movement that started with the name of “resolution process”?

It is sad to see that the moderate voices, those people wanting a peaceful, political solution to the conflict, are now being silenced. This includes members of the parliament, academics, journalists and regular citizens, as well. This strategy will only make the extremes, like the PKK, more powerful. The PKK, which is and will remain on the EU terror list, has to lay down its arms. The EU strongly supports a renewal of the settlement process, as there is no military solution to the Kurdish question.

Moreover, numerous journalists are also jailed in Turkey now. What does this really portray about Turkey to the world?

It’s very sad and unfortunate that Turkey is now the world’s largest jailer of journalists. For the last years, Turkey is moving away, in a fast pace, from important values such as freedom of media and freedom of expression. In a democracy, it is crucial that the public is well informed and that the government policies are publicly debated.

Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/baskanlik-hukukun-ustunlugunu-zayiflatir-144143.html