Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

PM's advisor Mahcupyan: Ankara has no intention of giving up on EU b

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • PM's advisor Mahcupyan: Ankara has no intention of giving up on EU b

    Middle East Online
    Dec 27 2014

    PM's advisor: Ankara has no intention of giving up on EU bid

    Mahcupyan insists Turkey still wants to be in Europe's 'first league'
    despite bitter row over crackdown on opposition.

    By Fulya OZERKAN - ISTANBUL


    Turkey's leaders are committed to EU membership and still aim to play
    in the "first division" of Europe despite a bitter row over a
    crackdown on the opposition, a top adviser to Prime Minister Ahmet
    Davutoglu said.

    Turkey's aspirations to join the EU received a serious setback when
    the latest police swoop on opposition media linked to President Recep
    Tayyip Erdogan's number one foe, Fethullah Gulen, led to an angry
    slanging match between Ankara and Brussels.

    Etyen Mahcupyan, a Turkish-Armenian who was named chief adviser to
    Davutoglu in November, blamed the dispute on a lack of understanding
    about Turkey in the West.

    But he told AFP in an interview that despite the sometimes tough
    rhetoric, Ankara had no intention of giving up on its decades-old bid
    to join the 28-member bloc.

    "AK Party (the ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP) absolutely,
    100 percent, wants to join the EU and demonstrate its own power in
    Europe," he said.

    "An enthusiastic and self-confident Recep Tayyip Erdogan cannot dream
    of a Turkey which plays in the second division. He wants to play in
    the first league, but as equal partners."

    Mahcupyan, however, criticised the West's "negative" approach and what
    he said was its failure to understand the government's war against the
    Gulen movement, which Erdogan has accused of orchestrating a plot to
    bring him down when he was prime minister.

    "The Western world is unaware of what's going on in Turkey. They do
    not understand and they are not very much willing to understand," said
    Mahcupyan.

    Erdogan has blamed the Gulen movement -- known as Hizmet (Service) or
    Cemaat (Community) -- of concocting a corruption scandal last year
    that rocked his government and has purged thousands of his followers
    from the police and the judiciary.

    - 'Attempt to topple Erdogan'-

    A Turkish court has issued an arrest warrant for the US-based Gulen,
    but the EU was particularly concerned by raids earlier this month that
    targeted pro-Gulen media.

    "It is very clear that the Gulen Cemaat attempted to topple the
    government and particularly to create a period without Tayyip
    Erdogan," said Mahcupyan, adding that it was an "abortive" initiative
    without military involvement.

    Mahcupyan said the Gulenists established a "hierarchy" in key state
    institutions in charge of policy-making and the "coup" was staged by
    that "core group," estimated to number between 5,000 and 10,000 out of
    up to three million sympathisers.

    "I cannot say all are involved," he said, adding that most Gulenists
    only heard about what happened from the media."As far as I can see,
    Tayyip Erdogan and the AK Party are trying to explain this as much as
    they can and convince them to part ways with Cemaat of their free
    will, so that the government can deal with the remaining core group."

    Critics at home and abroad have accused Erdogan of consolidating power
    against his domestic and international detractors, with a recent New
    York Times editorial labelling him an "authoritarian leader living in
    a parallel universe".

    Mahcupyan likened the ruling AKP, co-founded by Erdogan, to a
    "pendulum swinging between authoritarianism and democracy" and said
    the party showed a reflex for tougher measures whenever it saw a
    threat to its survival.

    "I can say it is a party closer to democracy... It is a very doubtful
    party which thinks the rug under its feet could be pulled at any
    moment."

    Mahcupyan said Erdogan and Davutoglu had similar ideas and their
    differences in style were complementary.

    "Tayyip Erdogan is the man who clears bushes in a wood with a sword in
    his hand. He does not stop. If he stops, there's a threat. He always
    moves forward just in case," he said.

    "Davutoglu is the man who will install tiles on the road. If Tayyip
    Erdogan does not open that path, Davutoglu cannot furnish that path.
    They complement each other."


    http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=69439



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X