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Turkey turns its back on the EU: The New York Times
17:29, 5 April, 2014
YEREVAN, APRIL 5, ARMENPRESS. A generation ago, it was Ankara's
assumption that its central role in the region's geopolitics would
translate into acceptance as a member of the prosperous European
Union, now numbering 28 countries. But that assumption has frayed. As
reports "Armenpress", The New York Times stated this in one of its
most recent articles.
Among other things it was particularly noted: "After months of
increasingly authoritarian rule by an embattled Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the portals of the club seem more than ever to
be closing on Turkey. And paradoxically, Turkey's most recent
elections may deepen its estrangement, raising questions not only
about European readiness to embrace Turkey but also about Mr.
Erdogan's interest in pursuing it.
"It is becoming clear that Erdogan's Turkey does not belong to
Europe," a prominent German politician, Andreas Scheuer, said after
the Turkish leader accepted his party's victory in the municipal
ballot on Sunday not just as a personal vindication but a mandate for
what an opponent called a "witch hunt" against his adversaries. "A
country in which the government threatens its critics and tramples
democratic values cannot belong to Europe," Mr. Scheuer said.
"What happens next will worry many Turks as they hear Erdogan vowing
to get even with his critics and opponents," the columnist Simon
Tisdall said in The Guardian. "That Turkey is now a deeply divided
nation is only too clear. That Erdogan's future actions may serve to
deepen those divisions is the great fear."
The effort to accede to the European Union -- haltingly underway since
2005 -- pulls at one set of reflexes, while Mr. Erdogan's style tugs at
another. Last year, he deployed the police against protesters in
Istanbul's Gezi Park. In December a major corruption scandal broke
over his aides and his family. Just in recent weeks, his government
has moved to block Twitter and YouTube -- depicted as his enemies'
tools in a campaign to besmirch him with faked evidence of
malfeasance."
http://armenpress.am/eng/news/757000/turkey-turns-its-back-on-the-eu-the-new-york-times.html
17:29, 5 April, 2014
YEREVAN, APRIL 5, ARMENPRESS. A generation ago, it was Ankara's
assumption that its central role in the region's geopolitics would
translate into acceptance as a member of the prosperous European
Union, now numbering 28 countries. But that assumption has frayed. As
reports "Armenpress", The New York Times stated this in one of its
most recent articles.
Among other things it was particularly noted: "After months of
increasingly authoritarian rule by an embattled Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the portals of the club seem more than ever to
be closing on Turkey. And paradoxically, Turkey's most recent
elections may deepen its estrangement, raising questions not only
about European readiness to embrace Turkey but also about Mr.
Erdogan's interest in pursuing it.
"It is becoming clear that Erdogan's Turkey does not belong to
Europe," a prominent German politician, Andreas Scheuer, said after
the Turkish leader accepted his party's victory in the municipal
ballot on Sunday not just as a personal vindication but a mandate for
what an opponent called a "witch hunt" against his adversaries. "A
country in which the government threatens its critics and tramples
democratic values cannot belong to Europe," Mr. Scheuer said.
"What happens next will worry many Turks as they hear Erdogan vowing
to get even with his critics and opponents," the columnist Simon
Tisdall said in The Guardian. "That Turkey is now a deeply divided
nation is only too clear. That Erdogan's future actions may serve to
deepen those divisions is the great fear."
The effort to accede to the European Union -- haltingly underway since
2005 -- pulls at one set of reflexes, while Mr. Erdogan's style tugs at
another. Last year, he deployed the police against protesters in
Istanbul's Gezi Park. In December a major corruption scandal broke
over his aides and his family. Just in recent weeks, his government
has moved to block Twitter and YouTube -- depicted as his enemies'
tools in a campaign to besmirch him with faked evidence of
malfeasance."
http://armenpress.am/eng/news/757000/turkey-turns-its-back-on-the-eu-the-new-york-times.html