Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan traveled to Brussels this week for a visit of critical importance for Turkey-EU relations. I was among the journalists who covered the visit, reporting for Milliyet and taking notes for Al-Monitor. I had the opportunity to talk to Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu both en route from Ankara to Brussels and on the way back.

Erdogan held important talks with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President Manuel Barroso and European parliament Speaker Martin Schulz. In just one day, he attended three important meetings, two news briefings and two conferences. He conveyed striking messages to his interlocutors concerning the Dec. 17 anti-corruption operation and the “parallel state” — the term he uses to describe Gulenists acting autonomously within the state. In his meeting with Barroso, which the EU official described as a “sincere” conversation, Erdogan talked about controversial rulings by the Fethullah Gulen-controlled judiciary. In my opinion, though, the Erdogan government mishandled the misdeeds of Gulenist prosecutors and judges in the past, and Turkey is now paying the price of those mistakes.

The meetings in Brussels focused on Turkey’s EU membership negotiations and bilateral ties, but the Dec. 17 operation was also on the agenda. Erdogan conveyed striking messages about the operation, the parallel state within the state and the measures to be taken against it. Here are highlights from the remarks Erdogan made to journalists on the return flight:

• High-profile cases: There is a parallel structure within the state. Our concerns on the issue are not new. We have had concerns for two years, but we preserved our good will so as not to attract criticism over the independence of the judiciary. The current stage demonstrates that our good will has been abused.
• Equality for all: We are against any religious group gaining the upper hand within the state in Turkey by exploiting religious beliefs. We are striving for a system in which everyone is equal before the law and the state, regardless of their religion, language, ethnicity and allegiances.
• No deviation from the referendum spirit: In all the crises we have been through so far, we chose the path of democratization. The 2010 referendum, too, was a democratization drive. Today we stand at the same point where we stood at the 2010 referendum. Yet, an arrangement that aimed to ensure a pluralist judiciary — something we place importance on — was scrapped by the Constitutional Court at the time.
• Impartial judiciary: Turkey has expended great efforts in the name of judicial independence and carried out reforms that the EU, too, has welcomed. Yet, Turkey has another important threshold to pass — a judiciary that would be fully independent. That’s the objective of the current steps. We have to move in the direction of the rule of law and not the rule of the judiciary.
• Confidence erosion: Some high-profile trials in recent years have irked the public, both in terms of long detention periods and the way in which the trials were conducted. There is criticism that the police and the judiciary worked too closely, almost as partners, and that the investigations proceeded not with the orders and under the control of the judiciary, but fully under the police’s initiative. We are taking this into consideration.
• Parallel judiciary: There is a parallel state within the judiciary as well as within the police. Their purpose is not to ensure justice, but to expel certain entities out of the system or to punish them. They charge any entity they like in the way they like, and when it comes to determining the authenticity of [incriminating] documents, they are capable of securing the outcome they like. As in the case of the Dec. 17 operation, they instantly create the impression of guilt, moving under the pretext of corruption, using evidence obtained through dubious means and slighting the presumption of innocence. The recent atmosphere at EU quarters had suggested they had doubts over the legal arrangements on the judiciary. We learned that top EU officials conveyed to Erdogan their concerns over the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) and the legal structure of the judiciary. Erdogan, for his part, gave assurances that 70% of the EU’s concerns had been addressed and the rest would be addressed in the coming days. Barroso and Rompuy expressed to Erdogan their satisfaction on the issue.

Earlier in the day, Erdogan held two joint news conferences with EU officials. The conferences were similarly interesting in terms of reflecting both the atmosphere of the talks and the EU attitude. Here are the messages Erdogan conveyed at those news conferences: