Why the EU should terminate accession negotiations with Turkey. CEPS Commentary, 19 April 2017

Blockmans, Steven. and Yilmaz, Sinem (2017) Why the EU should terminate accession negotiations with Turkey. CEPS Commentary, 19 April 2017. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

Dictators do not simply come and go. And when they go, they rarely go quietly. The test of a dictator like President Erdoğan isn't how he came to power but how he treats critics, journalists, minorities, and whether he can still be outvoted. Now that a narrow majority of Turkish voters in the referendum has supported the codification of autocracy, any hope for the democratic removal of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has evaporated. Given this sorry state of affairs, the EU has no other choice but to terminate Turkey’s accession process. By constitutionalising an executive presidential system that erases the separation of powers and frees Erdoğan’s hands to deepen repression, Turkey will be in breach of the ‘political’ criteria for EU membership for years, if not decades, to come.1 Rather than merely ‘suspending’ accession negotiations in an attempt to keep up appearances – bureaucratic language that will be lost on Erdoğan as much as it will be on liberal Turks and European citizens – the EU should stand behind its core values and reset its relationship with the Republic of Turkey on a more credible and strategic footing, while pressing the regime on respect for human rights and working with civil society to keep the flame of ‘deep’ democracy alive.

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