EP rapporteur on Turkey: "Political elites in Turkey parted ways with democracy"

European Parliament's standing rapporteur on Turkey, Nacho Sanchez Amor, said that it should no longer be the membership process but other issues that everybody should start focusing on in the talks between the European Union and Turkey, as there is a serious fallback instead of progress in human rights, rule of law and freedoms in Turkey, which are at the heart of the membership process.

Speking to T24, Nacho Sanchez Amor said:

"The people, officials and political actors in Turkey should separate the EU membership process from the rest of the issues in EU-Turkey relations. What I see is that these two things are mixed up (...) The membership process involves certain principles and is a normative process. A country who seeks membership is obliged to fulfill certain standards, and this is not open to negotiations. There are human rights, rule of law and freedoms at the heart of the membership process. This means that a country who will become a member should be mature democracy. We are after all a club of democracies."

He continued:

"It should not be expected that we may give up our expectations concerning human rights and rule of law simply because we need Turkey as a neighbor, an ally and a partner. This will not happen. We haven't seen Turkey implement any reform in recent years in the fields of human rights, rule of law and freedoms. On the contrary, we have observed serious fallback in these fields."

He added:

"The political elites in Turkey parted ways with democracy. As EU member states, we want institutionalized and mature democracies. You know why? Because we have been inoculated with the cases of Poland and Hungary. We don't want to see this happen again. If you seek access to the club, you should be a mature democracy."