Hürriyet Daily News published an article by Barçin Yinanç headlined "Gezi protesters brought Turkey closer to the EU."
"The Gezi protesters, who were seen across the worldwide as peaceful, despite all the demonizing efforts of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), have, according to the evaluations of Europeans, brought Turkey a step closer to EU membership. Ironically, the harsh response of the government has at the same time showed how Turkey still falls short of fulfilling membership criteria," the article reads.
"Put very simply, you need to be a fully functioning democracy to be a member, the prerequisite of which is a strong civil society. This civil society should not just be vibrant in terms of philanthropy, but also active in terms of participating in anything that relates to daily life, without limiting its action to just going to the ballot box during election times," the author writes.
"That’s why the Gezi protesters brought Turkey closer to the EU and the Commission felt the need to open the way to start negotiations on chapter 22, which were suspended last June due to the anti-democratic reaction of the government. After all, the government has still not shown any regret and the investigations that have been initiated by the Interior Ministry over the disproportionate use of force have not resulted in anything that will be noted in the progress report. The Commission did not want that the government’s non-repentance to jeopardize the possibility of giving a small momentum to the negotiations which have been stuck for the past three years," Barçin Yinanç believes.
