Turkey has become internationally isolated and must tone down its rhetoric if it wants to win key EU concessions, a top European official said on Wednesday.
The representative of the European Parliament for Turkey, Nacho Sánchez Amor, said that the Turkish government’s negative discourse on foreign affairs is the biggest obstacle to improving relations with Brussels.
Turkey is seeking to ease access to European visas for its citizens and update a 1995 customs agreement with the bloc that could help boost exports. EU foreign policy chief Borrell recommended progress on both issues last week.
Nacho Sánchez Amor told reporters in Istanbul that It is costless and easy to avoid using an aggressive and threatening tone and added that another condition on the final day of his fact.
“You are completely isolated and your only true friend is Azerbaijan,” said the Spanish socialist.
During his trip, Sánchez Amor met imprisoned civil society leader Osman Kavala, a philanthropist whose detention has further soured Turkey’s relations with the West.
Nacho Sánchez Amor praised Ankara for allowing the meeting, describing Kavala as an extraordinary figure.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is making a rare visit to Greece on Thursday with the aim of improving relations between the two historic rivals.
He repeatedly criticized the West on the campaign trail in May and condemned Berlin’s support for Israel in its war with Hamas during a visit to Germany last month.
Speaking to reporters on his recent return from Qatar, one of his closest and most important allies in the Middle East, Erdogan said that if it were not for the support of all Western countries, especially the United States, for Israel, we would be in the region right now and such a situation should not be faced.
“The unlimited support of these countries in the form of money, weapons, ammunition and equipment has turned Israel into a spoiled child of the West,” he said.
Nacho Sánchez Amor said he believed that such rhetoric worked well on the Turkish people. “I know that there are internal factors behind many of Turkey’s foreign policy decisions,” he said.