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No way Turkey ever becomes EU member: Analyst

Friday, 25 November 2016 2:20 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 25 November 2016 2:22 PM ]

Members of the European Parliament take part in a voting session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, on November 22, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

The European Parliament has voted in favor of a freeze of membership talks with Turkey over Ankara’s heavy-handed crackdown following a failed coup in mid-July.

A former US Senate foreign policy analyst believes the European Parliament’s decision to shelve accession negotiations with Ankara is not an “overreaction”, adding that there’s no way that Turkey is ever going to be allowed to be a member of the EU.

“They have had associate status with the EU since 1963, they have been in these talks for accession for a couple of decades now, but there was always the problem under the former Kemalist quasi-fascist ordering in Turkey, they obviously did not meet European standards and now with the increasingly authoritarian rule of [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan again the Europeans are not going to want them in,” James Jatras told Press TV in an interview on Friday.

He further described Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim's remarks on the refugee crisis as “a transparent threat” to the Europeans, explaining that Turkey can turn the “human floodgate” on again anytime it wants.

Yildirim has warned that Europe could be inundated with refugees and asylum seekers in case Turkey does not offer assistance under an agreement signed in March.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the analyst said that the Turkey-EU relationship is becoming “irreparable.”

He also stated Erdogan’s relations with Washington are not all that good either, arguing that it seems he is almost deliberately “burning bridges” with both the United States and the European Union.

“We are seeing a consolidation of one-man rule in Turkey and I think that is the new reality that both Washington and the European Union are very aware of,” he said.

Turkey has been trying to join the EU since the 1960s, but the formal negotiations started in 2005. However, the process has been mired in problems, and only 16 chapters of the 35-chapter accession procedure have been opened for Ankara so far.

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