World press on democracy in Turkey and the country's integration into the EU (April 15, 2014)

Hürriyet Daily News published an article by Murat Yetkin headlined "Is Turkish democracy not mature enough for the EU?"

"You have probably read the statements of Turkey’s new European Union Affairs Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu," the article reads. "Promising new reforms towards EU harmonization, Çavuşoğlu says Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) government is going to try hard to correct Turkey’s damaged image in Europe."

"Well, that is a really hard job," the author notes."Not only because there is an ongoing investigation within the EU Commission to understand whether there is anything wrong with the fund’s spending in Europe, after Erdoğan left former EU Minister Egemen Bağış out of the Cabinet because of the involvement of his name in the Dec. 17, 2013 graft probe."

"It is also because there is something not-quite-European in the government’s assessment that what has been happening in Turkey for some time is only an image problem," the article reads.

"It is also naive to think that when you say there is no corruption and allegations are a part of a “coup attempt” - without first dealing with the allegations - you expect everyone to buy it. Perhaps for the AK Parti voters who have integrated their future with Erdoğan’s, but not the rest; especially not your European partners," the author writes.

"I was talking to an EU official in a critical position regarding Turkey’s half-a-century old membership bid. My source, who doesn’t wish to be identified, said something really striking and sad for me to hear. They said the general understanding in the EU Commission regarding the corruption allegations, the way the government handled them, and the result of the March 30 local elections, which were another win for Erdoğan, was as follows: Turkish democracy is not mature enough to defend the basic principles behind it," Murat Yetkin writes.