President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and top EU officials held very frank discussions in the Bulgarian city of Varna and set the stage for a mutual effort to iron out the differences between Ankara and the political bloc.
Just before the Varna summit, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was on record saying the EU should suspend full membership talks with Ankara which prompted European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to say he was against the "simple, superficial" idea of cutting Ankara's accession negotiations to the EU, assuring: "I, myself, guarantee that Turkey's EU accession talks will continue."
But that is not all. Greece is complaining about the arrest of its military personnel who were caught in Turkish territory, claiming it is not responsible for the current tensions in the Aegean Sea. Greek Cyprus is trying to involve the bloc in its disputes with Turkish Cyprus and Turkey, as well.Despite all this, the Varna talks created some optimism that all is not over between Turkey and the EU and that the summit in Bulgaria will be followed by some intense contacts on ways to mend fences and bridge the gaps between Turkey and the EU in the next few months until Erdoğan and EU officials meet again in June.It is clear that the EU officials have noted Erdoğan's grievances. Touching on the failed July 15 coup attempt in Turkey in 2016, Juncker said it was "utterly unacceptable for the EU," adding that the bloc did not know at the time that there was an assassination attempt on Erdoğan.
Of course, that is hardly any comfort when putschists have found sanctuary in many European countries, led by Germany, and Athens is holding on to eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece after the coup attempt.The road ahead is not a smooth path. European Council President Donald Tusk said after the talks that no "concrete solutions or compromises" were reached but that he hopes to make "this possible in the future." "Only progress on these issues will allow us to improve EU-Turkey relations, including the accession process," Tusk said.
However, it is clear that Turkey's military successes in Syria and its excellent performance taking in 3 million Syrian refugees who fled the civil war has shown EU officials and leaders that one simply cannot write off Turkey.
After the summit, Erdoğan said Turkey expect strong support from Europe on sensitive issues such as the fight against terrorism instead of rambling and unjust criticism. "Our operations against terrorism not only to contribute to our security and Syrians', but also to the security of Europe," he said. Underlining the EU's intention to "expand cooperation with Turkey on foreign terrorist fighters," the European Council president was also joined by Juncker saying that the bloc stood by Turkey in terms of the fight against terrorism.
The EU has to address Turkey's complaints and frustrations. The fact that the EU has not lifted visa restrictions on Turkish nationals, been too slow in providing financial help for the Syrian refugees holed up in Turkey, suspended an agreement to improve the customs union agreement that is hurting Turkey's economic interests and the way some EU countries are openly allowing the PKK to run amok in the streets of Europe all have to be addressed in earnest.
