{"id":1549852,"date":"2025-07-30T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1549852"},"modified":"2025-07-30T07:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T11:30:00","slug":"eu-courts-turkey-as-it-overlooks-istanbul-mayor-arrest-opposition-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/eu-courts-turkey-as-it-overlooks-istanbul-mayor-arrest-opposition-crackdown\/1549852\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Courts Turkey As It Overlooks Istanbul Mayor Arrest, Opposition Crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

EU Courts Turkey As It Overlooks Istanbul Mayor Arrest, Opposition Crackdown<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Via Middle East Eye<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

When Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was\u00a0detained<\/a>\u00a0in February on charges of corruption, European officials were stunned. Imamoglu, widely regarded as the most important contender against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had faced legal challenges before. But few expected his dramatic detention in a dawn raid and his treatment as little more than a common criminal.<\/p>\n

At the same time, another court case was launched against the leadership of the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) to remove them from office, again on charges of bribery. \u201cThese steps risk setting Turkey-EU relations back by a decade,\u201d a senior EU official fumed earlier this year. Five months forward, Ankara\u2019s relationship with Brussels couldn\u2019t be better<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Turkish Presidency\/AFP<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The EU last year\u00a0decided<\/a>\u00a0to deepen its dialogue with Turkey, and many questioned whether the hard-found momentum, after years of frozen EU membership negotiations, would last amid an increasing crackdown on the opposition.<\/p>\n

In the weeks after the Imamoglu incident, EU officials met Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek as part of the Turkey-EU High-Level Economic Dialogue meeting in Brussels<\/strong>. In May, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attended an informal meeting of the EU foreign ministers, known as Gymnich.<\/p>\n

The meetings continued uninterrupted as Turkish courts arrested more popularly elected mayors aligned with the CHP<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWaiting for an EU\u2019s reaction similar to Georgia\u2019s one,\u201d<\/strong> Nacho Sanchez Amor, a Turkey rapporteur at the European Parliament,\u00a0posted<\/a>\u00a0on July 5, when three mayors were arrested. \u201cA new test for a coherent foreign policy or an invitation to exhibit our traditional \u2018double standards\u2019?\u201d That reaction didn’t come.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In July, Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat met his counterparts as the two sides held the Turkey-EU High-Level Trade Dialogue meeting. The next day, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya met his European counterpart as they held the Turkey-EU High-Level Migration and Security Dialogue meeting.<\/p>\n

And finally, on Monday, the EU commissioner for enlargement, Marta Kos, met Fidan in Istanbul, releasing a joint statement that underlined areas of collaboration, from EU\u2019s projects linking Europe to Central Asia to visa liberalization, an update to the customs union and Ukraine\u2019s reconstruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommissioner Kos also emphasized that dialogue on rule of law and democratic standards is an integral part of our relationship and a commitment by Turkiye as a candidate country,\u201d the joint statement\u00a0said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kos and Fidan didn\u2019t hold a news conference, a sign that neither side wanted to get antagonistic questions from media on Imamoglu’s case<\/strong>, among other issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EU doesn\u2019t want to rock the ship,\u201d a western diplomat told Middle East Eye. \u201cThe EU needs Turkey on Ukraine<\/strong>, on the defense industry overhaul and for the stability in the region as Syria recovers from the civil war.\u201d The diplomat added that other concerns around human rights issues in Turkey are taking the back seat as the world enters a new era of conflicts and risks with Donald Trump\u2019s presidency in the US.<\/p>\n

EU with few options<\/strong><\/p>\n

Turkey has emerged as a global arms producer following a series of western sanctions that have restricted Ankara\u2019s access to military equipment since 2016. Over the past two decades, the country has invested billions of dollars in its domestic defense industry.<\/p>\n

Last year, Turkish firms exported $7.2bn worth of defense products to global markets<\/strong>, as Ankara now produces its own fighter jets, tanks, artillery, armoured vehicles and electronic warfare systems.<\/p>\n

Turkey has been essential in supplying arms to Ukraine and hosting peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow since 2021. Despite Ankara\u2019s refusal to join full international sanctions on Russia, Turkey has recently taken two important steps that indicate the direction Erdogan is taking in the war. \u201cIt has become clear once again,\u201d<\/strong> Erdogan said on 11 April, \u201cthat European security is unthinkable without Turkey.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ankara earlier this month\u00a0joined<\/a>\u00a0the \u201cinternational drone coalition\u201d supporting Ukraine by providing armed and unarmed military drones to Kyiv. Turkey is one of the three main drone producers in the world.<\/p>\n

Turkey also in March\u00a0joined<\/a>\u00a0the Coalition of the Willing to support Ukraine, and in July broadly\u00a0committed itself<\/a>\u00a0to post-war security guarantees for the country.<\/p>\n

Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, a regional director at German Marshall Fund, said the EU doesn\u2019t have many options to counter Turkey\u2019s democratic backsliding other than fully suspending the official membership negotiations, which isn\u2019t seen currently as a real option since it would be too difficult to reverse once taken. Unluhisarcikli added that Trump assuming office has weakened the US security commitment to Europe and Europeans are looking for ways to fend for themselves if necessary<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis encourages both the EU and Turkey to view each other more favorably in terms of security and defence industry cooperation, rather than within the framework of full membership,\u201d Unluhisarcikli told MEE. \u201cThe EU does not want to weaken the option of strategic cooperation by criticizing Turkey based on its domestic political developments.\u201d<\/p>\n

With this spirit, the EU is looking forward to focusing on joint areas of interest, as alluded to by the joint declaration on Monday,\u00a0said Samuel Doveri Vesterbye, a managing director at the European Neighbourhood Council.<\/p>\n

This includes the Middle Corridor, a scheme also known as the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, which links Europe, including Turkey and the Caucasus, to Central Asia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is this a priority for EU and Turkiye? It\u2019s because the Central Asian region presents many opportunities for industry, critical raw materials, renewable energy production, trade and geo-political considerations linked to Turkic, Central Asian nations,\u201d Vesterbye told MEE. \u201cAnd regional integration of wider Europe, which today includes countries like Tajikistan, Armenia, Turkiye, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and many others.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second western diplomat said the EU was focusing on the practical deliverables to improve EU-Turkey relations and keep Ankara on track while trying not to antagonize it – basically offering carrots rather than sticks to make progress on bilateral issues.<\/p>\n

An ‘opportunity’ for Turkey<\/strong><\/p>\n

Marc Pierini, senior fellow at Carnegie Europe and former EU ambassador to Turkey, however, has a differing opinion, saying that the EU government and its bodies all have expressed their dismay at the constant degradation of rule of law in Turkey.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the worsened geopolitical situation in the world, an unavoidable evolution takes place: it’s called the hierarchy of crises. Big powers tend to prioritise those crises closer to their core interests,\u201d he told MEE. \u201cSimultaneously, Turkey’s leadership is probably seeing this geopolitical situation as an ‘opportunity’ to further consolidate its autocratic model <\/strong>for domestic and electoral reasons while western partners are otherwise preoccupied.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Turkey continues to face hurdles: for example in gaining access to the EU arms fund known as\u00a0SAFE<\/a>, which has a \u20ac170bn budget for European joint defence projects. SAFE mandates that 65 percent of projects are funded by firms in the bloc, the broader European Economic Area or Ukraine,\u00a0only allowing<\/a>\u00a0Turkey to join the project with limited participation.<\/p>\n

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, however, last week\u00a0continued to argue<\/a>\u00a0that Turkish firms won\u2019t be able to participate in the SAFE program unless Turkey lifts its 1995 declaration of casus belli if Greece decides to increase its territorial waters from six to 12 miles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 07\/30\/2025 – 03:30<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/eu-courts-turkey-it-overlooks-istanbul-mayor-arrest-opposition-crackdown<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EU Courts Turkey As It Overlooks Istanbul Mayor Arrest, Opposition Crackdown Via Middle East Eye When Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was\u00a0detained\u00a0in February on charges of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1549853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1549852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6vbC","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/erdoganandvonderleyen-oMNIDv.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1549852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1549853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1549852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1549852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1549852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}