European Commission 2022 report on Türkiye lacks vision, says Foreign Ministry

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye on Wednesday lashed out at a new European Commission report on Türkiye, saying that it lacks vision and is biased.

"The European Commission's 2022 report on Türkiye once again reveals the EU's stance towards our country, which is far from its strategic point of view and lacks vision," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Saying that the annual report on the nation’s EU bid disregards the bloc's responsibilities towards a longtime candidate country and displays double standards, the ministry called it "yet another example of the EU's biased attitude towards Türkiye."

The report reflects the Greek and Greek Cypriots' illegal and maximalist views on the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean Sea as well as the Cyprus issue, said the ministry. Türkiye has long decried efforts for the EU to get involved in bilateral issues between Ankara and Athens.

The report also ignores Turkish Cypriots as well as the views of Türkiye and Northern Cyprus, said the ministry statement, adding that it also reveals whose interests the bloc takes into account while writing the report. Türkiye has also criticized the EU's failure to keep its promises to the Turkish Cypriots while admitting the Greek Cypriots into the bloc in 2004 as the sole representative of the island.

"The EU is not an international judicial body which decides on maritime jurisdiction areas," the ministry stressed.

Türkiye applied for EU membership in 1987, and its accession talks began in 2005.

In the years since, the talks have been essentially frozen due to political roadblocks by certain EU members – including Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration – for reasons unrelated to its suitability for membership, according to Ankara.

Turkish officials argue that the EU can never live up to its potential on the world stage without Turkish membership in the bloc, making continued efforts to stymie its accession bid blind and short-sighted.