The EU's Declaration Of War

BY M. ALI KISLALI
RADIKAL- The European Union has declared war on Turkey, following the closure case filed by the state prosecutor against the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Besides the EU`s central staff and spokesmen, its supporters in Turkey have ramped up their threats. They reiterate at every occasion that if the AKP is closed, membership talks with the EU would be suspended. (Our membership talks have been suspended for a while, anyway, haven`t they?). Nobody`s asking how relations with the EU have affected Turkey. Nobody`s wondering about the possibility of our full EU membership, the EU`s view of this, or what we have to do to get membership. Nobody in Turkey is asking who`s against Turkey`s membership. But all the EU advocates reiterate their threat that if the AKP is shuttered, our EU membership talks would be suspended.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also says that he doesn`t believe his party would be closed. In his indictment, the prosecutor detailed AKP policies said to violate the law. Now isn`t it time to wait for the Constitutional Court Court`s ruling on the case? As if the EU ever treated Turkey warmly or encouraged hope for our membership, now how can it say that if the AKP is closed, Ankara`s membership talks would be suspended? How can it ask the Constitutional Court not to implement the law and the prosecutor to withdraw the case?

Who will be swayed by the EU`s threats and blackmail? Probably not our experienced judges. And Erdogan`s statement that he doesn`t believe his party will be closed, what could it mean? The AKP is doing what it thinks is right. It`s also trying hard to rally its supporters` morale, not stir up tension, and not show disrespect to the court`s rulings. It leaves the task of going too far to the EU. The head of the Parliamentarian Assembly of the Council of Europe (a non-EU body) also stated that its Turkish members from the AKP asked PACE to issue a declaration opposing the closure case. I think the EU will lose the war it has declared against Turkey `s constitutional regime.