There have been many problems between the EU and Turkey. The EU has not been keeping its promises to Turkey for decades. For instance, those issuing remarks on visa exemption are either not familiar with EU history or are distorting the facts deliberately. Visa exemption is a right Turkish citizens already deserve. However, they are being deprived of this right because the EU did not keep its promise on the subject years ago. In other words, those not favoring President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are currently not expressing the facts while issuing statements on visa exemption by showing the current situation as an excuse. If the EU had kept its word, the visa requirement for Turkish citizens would have been lifted before the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came to power.

Just as it did not keep the promise it gave to Turkish Cypriots with regard to the Annan Plan Referendum, the EU deceived Turkish citizens on the matter of visa exemption. It is necessary to point out that the visa requirement for Turkish citizens is a disgrace to human rights.

Also, it is highly doubtful how many of the EU politicians claiming to support Turkey's EU membership are really sincere. For instance, the European politician threatening Turkey nowadays used to boast about being a friend of Turkey while claiming that he defended Turkey's EU membership. But I know that behind closed doors he is against Turkey's membership due to cultural reasons. In Brussels and other EU capitals, there are many politicians like him who seem to advocate Turkey's EU membership but say quite the contrary off the record.

The most perplexing aspect about these people is that they assume Turkey does not know anything about their hypocrisy. The politicians in Turkey have always been aware of the fact that some of those who seemingly support Turkey do not actually say what they really think.

Unfortunately, the history of EU-Turkish relations is full of false advocates. The EU has played the old game of good cop bad cop, wasting Turkey's time for decades. In this game, the bad cop has always been the European Parliament.

Despite knowing all this, Turkey has not retracted from the path leading to the EU since it attaches importance to EU values and thinks that Turkish citizens deserve to be treated in accordance with these values as well. Otherwise, it could have given up on its target to join the EU numerous times due to the unethical attitudes of those representing the EU. However, Turkey continues to maintain its determined progress on the subject.The EU, however, does not seem to have learned from the past. The obnoxious threats from Martin Schulz are the latest example of this.

Schulz is one of the leading European politicians in terms of familiarity with the Turkish context. He knows the atrocities committed by the outlawed PKK very well and also knows that the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) is controlled by the PKK and abets terrorism. Also I am sure that he knows everything about the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and its leader Fetullah Gülen. And I believe there is also no need to explain to Schulz that the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, which is actually a Kemalist outlet, was seized by FETÖ and used to abet terrorism.

His threats to Turkey despite knowing all these things do actually reveal a fact: Though he has never openly articulated it, he is one of those objecting to Turkey's EU membership. He might have been obliged to support Turkey's EU membership as a result of the changing stances of Gerhard Schröder and Joschka Fischer in the past. And now apparently he is progressing in the path he believes in and uttering threats to Turkey, which do not provide any benefit to Turkey-EU relations, but rather undermine it.

However, as a name among the German chancellor candidates from the Social Democratic Party, Schulz is undermining German-Turkish relations as well, relations that are already strained.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu responded to Schulz, saying: "Essentially, the remarks by the European Parliament President Schulz do not bear so much importance for us. Schulz is using threatening and condescending language in his statement. He must first of all stop the pro-PKK activities at the European Parliament and speak out against the formations abetting terrorism in the EU. He can do his best with regard to economic sanctions. Our people are aware that we are again confronted with the hypocritical rhetoric of the EU and EP president."

With these remarks, Çavuşoğlu reflected the thoughts of 78 million Turkish citizens on Schulz.

With these threats, Schulz actually harmed his comrade Frank-Walter Steinmeier's upcoming Ankara visit on Tuesday. Turkey is rightfully criticizing Germany. Although it is unacceptable to give the right of asylum to Daesh militants and it is known widely in Germany, Germany refuses to extradite PKK and FETÖ militants to Turkey even though they are as dangerous as Daesh with the excuse that the right to seek asylum is divine, which is not plausible. Turkey rightfully does not accept this double standard.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is coming to Ankara to argue that he attaches importance to establishing dialogue with Turkey. Yes, dialogue is crucial. In particular, there is a need to establish a healthy dialogue between Turkey and Germany, the most notable country in the EU. However, a dialogue cannot be built or maintained with threats. Those wishing to establish dialogue have to be sincere. And the sincerity of Germany can be assessed by its stance to the militants terrorizing Turkey.

I hope Germany will take the required steps on this matter since Turkish-German cooperation is essential for both the EU and this turbulent region.