Macron slams door on Erdogan's EU ambitions
The Turkish public's strong desire for its country to join the EU could eventually have political implications for its president, who just returned from Europe empty-handed — again.
In Turkey, almost all print media outlets are under the strict control of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. That’s why every presidential trip abroad is hailed as a great triumph. Erodgan's recent trip to Paris was no exception.
Ahmet Insel, a prominent Turkish intellectual and former dean at the Sorbonne in Paris, observed Jan. 8, "Pro-government media welcomed Tayyip Erdogan with cries of victory on his return" from Paris. Insel saw parallels between the warm welcome Erdogan received upon his return and the warm welcome former French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier received upon returning to Paris after signing the much-maligned Munich Agreement in 1938. Daladier "was expecting protests when he returned home, but was instead welcomed by a cheering crowd on the tarmac." Daladier remarked at the time, "Ah, morons! If they would have known."
Perhaps Erdogan had similar thoughts when he addressed the cheering crowd, wrote Insel.
French President Emmanuel Macron was blunt and undiplomatic in his statement about the Jan. 5 meeting with Erdogan. According to a BBC paraphrase of the speech, Macron said, "It was time to end the hypocrisy of pretending that there was any prospect of an advance in Turkey’s membership talks with the EU.”
