Advocates call for greater focus on democratic rights in Turkey ahead of European summit
As European leaders prepare to review EU-Turkey relations in a summit this week, advocates urged greater links between future cooperation and improvements in basic rights and the rule of law in Turkey.
ISTANBUL — Faced with a packed agenda for the June 24-25 European Council summit in Brussels, European leaders will once more assess relations with Turkey on a number of critical issues and plot out the road ahead for bilateral cooperation.
Top items to be discussed include migration management and an extension of the “positive agenda” set forth in the Council’s March statement linking advancements in EU-Turkey trade talks to continued progress on territorial disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean, which deeply strained Greece-Turkey relations in 2020.
Despite a set of aggressive naval drills Wednesday, Athens and Ankara have commenced exploratory talks on addressing maritime boundary disagreements, which EU leaders have welcomed as a marked improvement in recent months. Yet as Brussels is set to review engagements with Ankara in this week’s summit, advocacy groups are calling for a greater focus on democratic rights and the rule of law in Turkey.
In a joint letter to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Council president Charles Michel, 16 human rights and free speech organizations urged EU leaders to link future cooperation with Ankara on “measurable improvements” in Turkey’s domestic human rights record.
