Turkey has its say at European Political Community summit
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French leaders continue to maintain a tradition of taking initiatives on behalf of the European continent and speaking on behalf of its peoples. We witnessed another example of this when, upon French President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative, a meeting was held last week in the Czech capital Prague under the title of the European Political Community.
Turkey has always felt uneasy about such initiatives because France uses this method to offer Ankara a lesser status than full membership of the EU. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opposed this idea when a similar initiative was launched in 2008 under the title of the Union for the Mediterranean. He insisted that Turkey’s EU accession process should not be negatively affected by such initiatives. Erdogan repeated this position during last week’s meeting.
Macron may have taken this initiative to fill the gap created by the absence of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Ukrainian crisis facilitated his task because, in an environment where no country is able to fully describe the present era, such an initiative is indeed timely.
Macron’s invitation was extended to all EU member countries, plus Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the UK and the Western Balkan countries, namely Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. The next meeting is scheduled to be held in Moldova.
Erdogan was one of the first leaders who positively responded to Macron’s invitation. He used this opportunity to meet several leaders. In addition, he made a full-fledged press briefing on the first day of the meeting and conveyed all messages that he wanted to communicate to his interlocutors. This was a clever tactic because, if he had waited for the second day, other important subjects could have come up and pushed aside Erdogan’s remarks.
There were several messages in his address, but some were more important than others. Regarding Turkey’s relations with Greece, he referred to a war of words that must have taken place during the closed session. A Greek journalist asked during the press briefing what Erdogan meant when he said that Turkey “might come all of a sudden one night.” Erdogan responded by saying: “You seem to have understood what Turkey means by that. Since you have understood, your authorities must have understood as well.”
Erdogan’s other important message was about Cyprus. He repeated that the two-state solution was the only way out for the island, which is home to two distinct peoples, one embracing Islam, the other Christianity. Intermarriages between them are rare. The borders have already been drawn. There is a deep mutual mistrust between the two peoples. The Greek Cypriots have strangulated Turkish Cypriots in recent decades. Forcing them to become one state was therefore unrealistic.
Regarding Syria, Erdogan said he was not opposed to meeting Bashar Assad if the conditions became suitable.
President Erdogan conveyed all messages that he wanted to communicate to his interlocutors.
Yasar Yakis
Turkey-Armenia relations was another subject he wanted to raise. It started with a cozy talk before the plenary, around a small desk, with the participation of Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. This was followed by a full-fledged closed-door meeting with the Armenian leader. Erdogan said after the meeting that Pashinyan had raised some issues that needed to be sorted out between the two countries and that they had instructed their foreign ministers and special negotiators to follow up on them.
Armenia was also the subject of a quadrilateral meeting between Macron, Aliyev, Pashinyan and Charles Michel, the chairman of the European Council. The flaring up of fighting between Azeri and Armenian soldiers was yet another subject, but this question could not be solved in a meeting on the margins of an international summit.
Amid the Ukraine crisis, the former co-chairmen of the Minsk Group — France and the US — tried to steal Russia’s game-maker role in the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis and take it under their control. As a result, Armenia is now dragging its feet in fulfilling its commitments under the ceasefire agreement.
The program of the European Political Community gave the impression that no discussion was scheduled for any specific agenda item. Such an approach has the advantage of the leaders being able to raise any issue with their counterparts. However, whatever the official agenda of the meeting, the elephant in the room was the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its annexation of four Ukrainian territories. The energy crisis also took up most of the time of the many EU member countries affected by the interruption of Russia’s gas supply.
The new community does not overlap with any existing initiative in Europe. It addresses the future of the continent outside the bounds of the present EU members. The more the geographic area is enlarged, the more new problems are likely to arise. However, it was an initiative worth trying.
• Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkey and founding member of the ruling AK Party. Twitter: @yakis_yasar
