Turkey is subjugating Europe – when will you stop it?
AKEL MEP G. Georgiou speaks before the EU-Turkey Delegation
21st January 2020
“As members of the European Parliament and as political persons, we should not have permitted Erdogan to subjugate the whole continent to his designs. The EU has fallen victim to own its policies. It helped create the refugee crisis and, today, has ended up tolerating Erdogan when he invokes the 4 million refugees (in Turkey), threatening that he will send terrorists to Europe and in a blackmailing manner is imposing his policies. The EU has taken the decision to impose, albeit the minimal of sanctions on Turkey. However, so far the measures have still not been implemented. We are not in favour of sanctions, just for the sake of sanctions. But how do you curb Erdogan’s aggressiveness?”, AKEL MEP Giorgos Georgiou pointed out clearly before the EU-Turkey Delegation also in the presence of Bernard Brunet, Head of the Unit on relations with Turkey chez the European Commission, the Directorate-General of the Commission for European Neighborhood and Enlargement Policy. The subject of the debate was Turkey’s role in Libya and its geopolitical implications.
Speaking on behalf of the Group of the European United Left AKEL MEP Giorgos Georgiou stressed that history is repeated for the first time as a tragedy and then as a farce for the second time. However it appears, he added, that certain forces and circles haven’t drawn any lessons whatsoever from history, nor by another Erdogan, who had committed similar crimes 80 years ago, leading humanity to the edge. And he concluded that there are indeed culprits with names and addresses that we all know that are responsible for all that is going on.
Responding to comments by certain MEP’s that there has been no genuine effort on the part of the EU to reach out to Turkey, G. Georgiou argued that, without doubt, we should continue our efforts for a dialogue, but unfortunately, so far it has proved to be a dialogue of the deaf. To engage in a real dialogue, the AKEL MEP said, you need two sides, but in this concrete case, unfortunately, we are alone. He also recalled that Turkey is flirting seeking to upgrade its relations with the EU, but when we call for dialogue and a peaceful resolution of its problems which it is creating in the Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey issues threats and in a pirate way announces new drillings on licensed blocks within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cyprus.
In closing, AKEL MEP Georgiou made a special reference to the states that consider Turkey is being provoked to proceed to its illegal actions because of its exclusion from energy planning. As he explained, isolating Turkey is the pretext it cites to behave in a pirate manner. As G. Georgiou subsequently briefed the Delegation, within the framework of the negotiations for the solution of the Cyprus problem, on the basis of the law of the sea, a convergence was recorded with regards the issue of the natural resources and there was an agreement registered on the way the revenues from the exploitation of the natural gas after the solution of the Cyprus problem would be distributed. Turkey’s contribution towards resolving the Cyprus problem creates the preconditions for peace in the region and paves the way for settling energy issues as well, the AKEL MEP concluded.
