{"id":118,"date":"2014-05-12T13:48:40","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T13:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=118"},"modified":"2014-05-13T13:56:42","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T13:56:42","slug":"swoboda-turkey-further-from-eu-accession-than-in-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=118","title":{"rendered":"Swoboda: “Turkey further from EU accession than in 2007”"},"content":{"rendered":"

www.info-turk.be<\/em><\/p>\n

Turkey is further away from European Union membership today than it was seven years ago, Hannes Swoboda, leader of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, has said, voicing concerns over judicial independence in the country.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cIt is a long-term process. We are further away from the accession than perhaps seven years ago. But that does not mean you are totally away from it. This is the process; you get closer, then you get far away a bit \u2026 at the moment, we are a bit far away,\u201d Swoboda told daily H\u00fcrriyet on the sidelines of a conference titled \u201cInternational Symposium on Justice and Rule of Law\u201d held in Istanbul last week for the first time. \u201cFor the short term, we are in a very critical situation. But we cannot give up the long-term aims.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the last two years, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan has changed and has rolled back some reforms that were significant for the EU, according to Swododa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Erdo\u011fan came to power, he started some reforms, speaking about a Kurdish solution, pushing back the military to its corner internally and changing the criminal code. These were the moments when we thought \u2018OK, we are moving forward.\u2019 But then in the last two years, Erdo\u011fan started to like power too much and attack judicial institutions. This is pulling back some of the reforms we were defending,\u201d said Swoboda, recalling that the Turkish government\u2019s new legislation transferred significant powers over the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) to the Justice Ministry, a development reversing previous reforms.<\/p>\n

He said Europe and Turkey had to work for accession. \u201cWe have to convince our citizens in our countries that Turkish membership would be good,\u201d Swoboda said on Europeans\u2019 side. For Turkey\u2019s part, it should do \u201ca real constitutional reform\u201d and realize \u201cdecentralization,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t keep such a big country together with populations including the Kurdish one in a unitary state. It is one of the issues, but there are many other issues concerning democratic reforms,\u201d said Swoboda.<\/p>\n

He also said center-right European politicians could cease supporting Turkey\u2019s accession process in the near future, predicting that there would be more extremist parties in the European Parliament after the elections. \u201cThe danger is that some right-wing parties could move away from the enlargement and Turkey issue because they are afraid that they could be eaten up by the extremists. The effect will not be immediate, but we might see the influence over the center right,\u201d Swoboda said.<\/p>\n

Swoboda voiced concern over Erdo\u011fan\u2019s recent steps to limit the independence of the judiciary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some developments in the domestic scene concerning the independence of the judiciary, concerning the question of individual rights and the attempt to close Twitter and YouTube. These are symbols. We, in Europe, are concerned about this trend. We see some positive developments in Erdo\u011fan\u2019s policy on the Kurdish issue, the Armenian issue and other areas. But domestically, we have some serious doubts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Swoboda said the main problem in the judicial system in Turkey was the government\u2019s move to reshuffle officials from the judiciary and police on the grounds that they were members of Islamic scholar Fethullah G\u00fclen\u2019s movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main problem is that there are severe accusations from Erdo\u011fan against the G\u00fclen movement over infiltrating the judiciary and the police. He is using this argument to change a lot of personalities in the judiciary and police, trying to restrict the independence of the Constitutional Court and the HSYK. Therefore, we fear for the independence of justice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Swoboda said the G\u00fclen movement alone was not to blame, even if it has infiltrated the judiciary and police institutions, noting that the prime minister must have had a role in such a period.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they had the chance to infiltrate, they could only do it when Erdo\u011fan came to power. Maybe somebody very close to the movement opened the doors for them to the administration. Now the government is going against them without [stating] the necessary transparency,\u201d he said, adding that Erdo\u011fan was afraid of revealing when and how members of the G\u00fclen movement attained top positions in the judiciary and the police since he aided them in their rise.<\/p>\n

He also said judges must reveal whether all the officials reassigned and dismissed from their profession were members of the G\u00fclen movement and involved in any coup attempt against the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you mistrust the judicial system, then you will have to invite judges and lawyers from outside to look into it objectively without being bound by anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also defined the last two years of Erdo\u011fan\u2019s leadership as \u201cautocratic,\u201d creating enemies outside and inside the country to control the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is an autocrat. The language he uses is the typical language of an autocrat,\u201d he said, likening Erdo\u011fan\u2019s rule to Viktor Orban in Hungary while also differentiating it from President Bashar al-Assad\u2019s rule in Syria. (hurriyetdailynews.com, Cansu \u00c7AMLIBEL, May 12, 2014)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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