Will Cyprus talks bring Turkey closer to EU membership?

Unless Ankara is willing to improve human rights and abide by values in line with those of the EU, a Cyprus deal will be too little too late for Turkey’s membership bid, writes Josh Wood

From left, Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, Swiss minister of foreign affairs Didier Burkhalter, Greek Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on the sideline of the Cyprus peace talks at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on January 12, 2017. Laurent Gillieron/Pool Photo via AP
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BEIRUT // For decades, the Cyprus dispute has stood as one of the main obstacles to Turkey’s acceptance into the European Union.

The tens of thousands of Turkish troops stationed in the unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus are considered an illegal occupying force by southern Cyprus, an EU member state, and a failure to find a solution to the issue prevented Ankara’s entry into the bloc in the past.

But talks that began this week between international powers and Cypriot leaders on a deal to reunite the island appear to offer the best hope yet of finally resolving the issue.

Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 immediately after an Athens-backed coup sought to take control of the island. Communal violence between ethnic Greeks who wanted Cyprus to join with Greece and ethnic Turks who wanted to partition the island preceded the Turkish invasion, which Ankara defended as necessary to protect Turks.

The country was split in two, with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus being formally declared in 1983. The country is recognised only by Ankara.

Previous attempts at reunification have failed, but the current meeting in Geneva between Cypriot leaders as well as representatives of Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom is being portrayed by participants as promising. On Wednesday, the United Nations’ envoy to Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, said the talks remained “on track”.

However, new hurdles have arisen on Ankara’s path to EU membership.

Under president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has listed toward authoritarianism and blackened an already questionable human-rights record as voices of dissent are confronted.

Following an unsuccessful coup attempt in July, Mr Erdogan’s government launched a wide-ranging purge of state employees, firing and arresting tens of thousands. Mr Erdogan also called for the reinstatement of the death penalty, which is banned by EU member states.

Mr Erdogan has moved to crush opposition to his rule, with his government frequently arresting critics – including, recently, a cafeteria manager who said he would refuse to serve tea to the president in a hypothetical encounter. Opposition political parties are painted as fifth columns.

Turkey also jailed 81 journalists last year – more than any other country in the world – and shut down more than 100 news outlets, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

For a year and a half now, Turkey has again been at war with Kurdish separatists in the country’s south-east who say Ankara has long oppressed the country’s Kurdish minority population. Turkish artillery has pounded Kurdish-majority cities, rendering large areas wasteland and displacing many civilians.

None of these actions sit well with the EU and its calls for reform have been ignored, with the Turkish government only increasing the intensity of its crackdown and presenting measures to widen the power of the state and Mr Erdogan.

In November, the EU voted to temporarily freeze Turkey’s accession talks over concerns about the post-coup attempt crackdowns and human-rights abuses. While the EU has not gone so far as to close the door on membership, Turkey’s chances do not look good.

Simultaneously, Turkey’s interest in joining the EU has waned over the years, largely because of resistance and hostility toward the changes the bloc has tried to impose and a sense that Ankara has established itself as a major power in its own right.

Turkish leaders, including Mr Erdogan, have increasingly said that they do not really need EU membership and are not willing to make major sacrifices to attain it. With Turkey’s intensified efforts to quell dissent drawing criticism from the EU, Turkey has grown distant and sometimes openly hostile.

If the Cyprus issue had been settled a few years ago, it might have paved the way for Turkey’s entry into the EU.

Ironically, it is now perhaps the one issue Turkey is most willing to move forward on. But unless Ankara is willing to improve human rights and abide by values in line with those of the EU, a Cyprus deal will be too little too late for Turkey’s membership bid.

jwood@thenational.ae