EU wants Turkish military but not its membership: a case of hypocrisy

When I say hypocrisy of the European Union’s suggestion to Türkiye, I am not referring to the proposal by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to President Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara on March 12. Tusk wants Turkey to take a leading role in the Russia-Ukraine talks. But this is not just in the hands of Poland, which holds the rotating EU presidency, nor in the hands of Türkiye, which has so far been able to maintain balanced relations with both Ukraine and Russia despite being a NATO member.

US President Donald Trump is trying to persuade Ukraine and Russia to a ceasefire through talks in Saudi Arabia.

The hypocrisy, which seems to cause differences of opinion among EU countries as well, manifests itself in the arrogance of wanting to see Turkey in the hypothetical “new European security architecture” on the one hand, and being uncomfortable with Turkey even raising the issue of membership on the other.

In the Donald Trump era, the Turkish-EU relations are trapped in a triangle of US pressure, fear of Russia and a patchwork “Europe of Values”. The traditional central powers of the EU want the Turkish Armed Forces to support them against Russia, not talk about membership.

This is hypocrisy.

Europe of values?

The Europe of Values came to the fore with the end of the Cold War, and the Copenhagen Criteria adopted in 1993 ensured that the EU became the world’s number one “soft power” for some 20 years. Turkish reform steps early 2000s in the hope of joining the EU were also based on the Copenhagen Criteria. That dream ended when Greece blackmailed Germany into vetoing Poland and sacured membership to the Greek Cypriot government that rejected the reunification plan. The EU reached the peak of hypocrisy in its Türkiye politics in 2004.

The reformist era in Turkey also started to decline after that. After the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, those steps started to be reversed. From Osman Kavala and the Gezi Trial, to Selahattin Demirtaş and the appointment of trustees to elected municipalities, to the pressure on freedom of the press and freedom of expression, the damage to the rule of law and democratization has increased. The number of steps Ankara needs to take has increased again.

On the other hand, the Europe of Values has been punctured from many sides. Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Zionism fetishism and nation-state tendencies have weakened the supranational character of the EU, turning the Copenhagen Criteria into a discourse that is almost exclusively invoked when it comes to Türkiye.

Now military hypocrisy

Poland and Türkiye have several similarities. Poland is on NATO’s Eastern front, Türkiye is on the Southern front, both neighboring Russia. Türkiye is NATO’s second largest land force – after the US – and Poland its third. The early warning radar of the strategic US-NATO Missile Shield defense project is located in Türkiye and the missiles are in Poland (together with Romania and Spain). Both countries have an idea of each other’s military capabilities.

Ahead of Tusk’s arrival in Ankara, on March 11, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called on the EU to engage more closely with Türkiye to take advantage of its defense capabilities. Recent Turkish advances in military technology and production, and the Turkish military’s half-century of combat experience in the fight against the PKK, have begun to appeal to Europeans in their stance against Russia.

But this is where the hypocrisy begins.

Especially the EU’s leading powers mainly France and Germany say that defense cooperation with Turkey is one thing, but Turkey’s membership is another. In other words, they want Turkey to use its military capacity to counter Europe’s fear of Russia, but not to talk about membership.

Yes to military, no to integration

The hypocrisy does not end there.

For example, when Turkish politicians say “They don’t let us in because we are Muslims”, this irritates the European political elite. This is because it comes down to the millions of Muslim labor force, especially in France and Germany. For example, they do not want Türkiye to stop voicing the reality of the “Cyprus barrier”. They are also spreading pessimism about the coming five-party conference on Cyprus in Geneva in which the EU will not be a party.

Until now, the EU political elite has promised its voters prosperity by cutting military spending. Now Trump has come out and told them to put their hands in their pockets if they want US protection against Russia. This has both stoked fears of Russia in Europe and invalidated the power games of the European political elite – just look at the rise of the far right. Now, on the military front, there is another hypocrisy, which is to take strength from Turkey in order to ease their expenditures a little bit and not to give anything to Turkey.

Turkish troops should come, but Turkish politicians should not ask for membership, should know their place?

Share of Türkiye

“If the EU wants to prevent and even reverse its loss of power and altitude, it can only do so with the full membership of Türkiye” President Erdoğan said at a press conference with Tusk. He previously said that “a European defense architecture without Turkey is unthinkable”.

Ankara feels betrayed once again by the EU with the migrant deal in 2016 and does not want to see the same movie again; this time at the cost of a rift with Russia. Still, Turkey wants to use its geopolitical leverage to get closer to the EU.

Erdoğan knows that military card and geopolitical importance alone will not lead to EU membership.

It is not only important for us, the Turkish citizens, but also for the country’s strategic interests that the Turkish government urgently improves the quality of its democracy and rule of law. To argue otherwise is Turkey consoling itself, which is hypocrisy on Turkish side. If Türkiye succeeds in forcing the PKK to reject its half-century-long armed struggle and adopt legal politics, this will open a new chapter in EU-Turkish relations.