Page 17 - TURKRptAUG19

2.15 Politics - shorts
Angela Merkel seen on October 18, 2015 on Erdogan's throne at Yildiz Palace in Istanbul. Erdogan's AKP lost its parliamentary majority at the June 2015 polls and Merkel's photo was part of the Turkish populist's election campaign for the November 4, 2015 snap polls.
Despite some banner headlines, the EU remains in a difficult position in dealing with Erdogan thanks to the millions of refugees from wars in the Middle East that are sheltering in Turkey. “It would only be targeting people linked to these specific illegal activities. We’re trying to calibrate that carefully because we need Turkish cooperation on migration, NATO, countering terrorism... Some member states rely on Turkey for energy transit so we must tread carefully. Don’t expect any wide economic sanctions,” an EU diplomat involved in the discussions told Reuters.
The EU depends on Erdogan to holdback a tsunami of refugees. Security fears within the EU is undermining the unity as some states have lurched to the right and rising populism in many countries has been stoked by numerous terror attacks. Erdogan has skilfully played on these factors to give himself a wide space in which to manoeuvre, as in the case of oil and gas exploration in the waters off Cyprus. The EU has frozen Turkey’s long-stalled membership talks as well as negotiations on upgrading their customs union, accusing Erdogan of widespread violations of human rights.
Erdogan sees the EU’s decisions as “null and void”.
Turkey meets EU Cyprus gas drilling sanctions with ‘fourth ship’ announcement. Turkey’s response to the EU’s introduction of sanctions over its drilling for gas in waters where Cyprus claims exclusive economic rights has included an announcement from its energy minister that Ankara will send a fourth ship to the eastern Mediterranean to conduct seismic research for hydrocarbons around the island. Turkey currently has three ships around Cyprus, including two drilling ships. In a tweet, energy minister Fatih Donmez said seismic research vessel Oruc Reis would be dispatched to the Mediterranean after completing present activities in the Marmara Sea. The provocative approach of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his officials to the EU sanctions and threats of imminent sanctions from the US over Ankara’s deployment of Russian S-400 missile defence systems has added to a sense among officials that the strongman leader, in trouble politically and economically, has decided he needs to contrive a constant ‘state of emergency’ in order to stay in power. In a column for Ahval—a media outlet that takes an anti-Erdogan line—Ilhan Tahir wrote on July 16: “Opposition parties appear to be gaining momentum, and cracks are appearing within Erdogan’s [AKP] party as renegade former allies are looking to form their own entities that could split his constituency. Erdogan has no hope to offer and no economic policies to heal the deep economic damage the country has
17 TURKEY Country Report August 2019 www.intellinews.com