The head of the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights watchdog, arrived in Türkiye on Tuesday for a working visit as Ankara aims to leverage increasing contact into momentum in EU ties.
Secretary General Alain Berset was received by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the Presidential Complex in Ankara for a closed-door meeting.
Prior to the meeting, Berset met with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan for a discussion on cooperation between Türkiye and the Council of Europe, according to ministry sources.
Türkiye attaches importance to its ties with the council and supports Berset’s efforts on inclusivity and consensus-based dialogue, as well as the initiatives he has started since taking office last September, Fidan told Berset.
He also said the Council of Europe must play a stronger role in the fight against all forms of racism.
Türkiye is a founding member of the Council of Europe. This pan-European organization has aimed to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in its member states since its formation after World War II.
The council is separate from the EU, of which Türkiye has been a candidate country for over two decades. However, talks stalled in 2016 over what Ankara says is the bloc’s “insistence on politicizing the issue.”
Türkiye suggests it has fulfilled most of the criteria for membership. Though the accession process stalled, the country has remained a key economic and defense partner for the 27-member bloc.
Through ups and downs in ties, Ankara has never given up its ambition of joining the bloc, Erdoğan recently emphasized.
“Criticism and claims that Türkiye has strayed from its EU target are invalid,” Erdoğan told the opening of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in southern Türkiye earlier this month.
“Full EU membership remains a strategic goal for Türkiye,” he said. “However, due to certain fears, prejudices or actors who have taken the union hostage from the inside, the EU fails to demonstrate the necessary willpower to advance our membership process.”
He said if the EU seeks to “overcome the current trials and be represented as it deserves in the realigning global system, it must act accordingly, get rid of its baggage and Türkiye must take its chair in the union as a full member.”
He also emphasized NATO member Türkiye as a vital part of European security, stressing the continent’s safety was “unthinkable without Türkiye.”
“Türkiye is ready and determined to advance the process,” Erdoğan said and called out to the bloc to “take concrete steps.”
However, Berset’s visit follows his criticism of Türkiye over what he called “democratic backsliding” after the arrest of Istanbul’s former mayor, Ekrem Imamoğlu, on charges of corruption.
In an interview on April 12 on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Berset stated that the Council of Europe aims to address all issues with Türkiye in an “open and frank manner.”
Democratic backsliding is a “huge challenge” globally, including in Europe and the council is working on a “new democratic pact” to address it, he said.
“We need to address this challenge as a global phenomenon,” Berset said. “Türkiye, being a founding member of the Council of Europe, it would be impossible without it to address the development of democratic security together.”
Along with dozens of others, Imamoğlu, a prominent figure in the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was jailed last month pending trial over charges of bribery and extortion, the same day his party declared him as its presidential candidate, despite presidential elections being officially slated for 2028.
The Turkish government has firmly rejected claims of political motivation, emphasizing the independence of the judiciary.
After meeting Berset separately in Ankara, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç on Monday said he and the Council chief discussed Türkiye’s judicial reforms in line with shared values and universal rules of law.
“Türkiye will continue strengthening its cooperation and relations with the Council of Europe in line with democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights,” Tunç said in a post on X.
Imamoğlu’s arrest drew criticism from some European countries, including Germany and France. Tunç defined the criticism as prejudiced and showing “double standards.”
“It is against the principle of supremacy of law to interfere with legal processes. Unfortunately, some statements by the international community show that this basic principle is disregarded,” he said following the mayor’s arrest.
Pointing out the prosecution of and investigations against many politicians in “those countries,” Tunç said Türkiye wishes to see an “approach with common sense to the issue, especially from our European friends, as this is both a prerequisite for respect for our country’s domestic laws.”
The CHP had a field day with politicizing the case as Imamoğlu was announced as a candidate for a primary to select the party’s presidential candidate.
At a meeting of the European Parliament in Brussels in early March, CHP Chair Özgür Özel claimed that, unlike the government’s “contradictory” stance on EU accession, the CHP aligned with the values of the continental bloc, saying that they represented a Türkiye that “turned its face toward West” since the last days of the Ottomans.
Özel claimed that the next elections in Türkiye would be a “referendum” for Türkiye’s accession to the EU.
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