Intervention of AKEL MEP Giorgos Georgiou in his capacity as shadow Rapporteur for the Left Group, in the first debate on the Progress Report on Turkey in the Foreign Affairs Committee

 

5 June 2023, Brussels, European Parliament

Everyone keeps saying that Turkey is on the right side of history…

But how many Histories do we have, after all?

The one in which Turkey is acting as a factor of destabilization in the wider geopolitical region and undermining the development of mutually beneficial relationships promoting cooperation between Turkey and its neighbours and the EU itself?

The one in which Turkey is calling for a two state solution in Cyprus and forcibly assimilating Turkish Cypriots?

The one in which the rule of law and democracy in Turkey has reached its bottom?

Or does the right side of history mean Turkey remains a strategic partner of NATO “so as not to fall into the arms of Russia” or to satisfy the EU’s interests on the issue of migration?

If this is how the EU perceives things, then it is lowering the bar of its own values and expectations extremely low…