The relationship between the Turkish government and the EU today is poisoned by mutual accusations, suspicions and prejudices. An Islamic expert, one of the most renowned experts on the Middle East region in Germany, Professor Udo Steinbach, believes that the EU bears a significant part of the blame for the current situation in Turkey. ‘’There is no doubt that the EU bears the blame for the current behavior of Erdogan,’’ he said in an interview to Huffington Post.
Since 1999 Turkey has had candidate status for EU membership, and since 2005 official negotiations have been held about how to obtain membership of the alliance. But Europe, according to the expert, has never appreciated Turkey's efforts. For example, in 2002 Turkey abolished the death penalty – this step was particularly important, because the leader of the PKK, sentenced to death, has not been executed.
Steinbach recalls that in 2005 Erdogan, while being prime minister, broke a "taboo" by publicly announcing the presence of a "Kurdish problem" in the country, which could be solved by more democracy and improvement of human welfare. According to the professor, at that moment Erdogan was vitally interested in how to bring Turkey into the EU. In particular, to make sure the country would not experience a military coup. 75% of the Turkish population then supported the idea of joining the EU. But, at least, Erdogan's position changed after 2011, after the Europeans had made clear to him that, at best, his country could count on a "privileged partnership".
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
This European position hurt many Turks, and today Erdogan has a good opportunity to avenge the insult. For this reason, the expert suggests in an interview to Die Welt, we should expect the failure of the refugee agreement between Turkey and the EU.
The expert is in favor of the negotiations on Turkey's accession to the EU to be discontinued in the current circumstances. He explains his position that, otherwise, the EU would lose its image and credibility in the eyes of the internal political opponents of Erdogan, who are still focused on European integration.
Despite this, Steinbach proposes separating these questions of realpolitik, particularly the agreement on refugees. The EU has to keep as much as possible of this agreement, the professor said.
Steinbach does not agree with the views of the German Vice Chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, that Turkey is "blackmailing" the EU with this agreement. "In order to blackmail, Erdoğan must do something or want something from Europe,’’ the expert said.
On to the issue of abolishing the visa regime between the EU and Turkey, on which the Turkish government insists, the professor said that any decision will play into the hands of the Turkish president. "In that case, if the European Union refuses to liberalize the visa regime with Turkey, Erdogan will finally be able to present the EU as an enemy of Turkey,’’ the expert believes.
