Türkiye has relayed to the European Union that it wants its expectations to be met, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday after calling for a revival of accession talks ahead of this week’s NATO summit in Lithuania.
"We have extensively discussed this with the leaders of all EU nations I met in Vilnius and conveyed that Türkiye now wants positive steps to be taken after being kept at the EU's door for 52 years," Erdoğan told reporters following Friday prayers in Istanbul.
He was referring to the one-on-one talks he held with various EU leaders on the margins of the summit, especially with Sweden whose NATO membership bid he finally agreed to ratify when he was assured Stockholm would stop being too lenient toward anti-Islam demonstrations as well as terrorist entities.
But as he broke the news, Erdoğan surprised everyone by making the approval of Sweden's admission to NATO dependent on the revival of Türkiye's EU accession talks with Ankara. While his condition drew criticism for linking "two separate issues," multiple EU countries, as well as the U.S., voiced support for Türkiye’s membership.
Türkiye has the longest history with the union and the longest negotiation process. The country signed an association agreement with the EU’s predecessor in 1964, the European Economic Community (EEC), which is usually regarded as a first step to eventually becoming a candidate. Applying for official candidacy in 1987, Türkiye had to wait until 1999 to be granted the status of a candidate country. For the start of the negotiations, however, Türkiye had to wait for another six years, until 2005, a uniquely long process compared with other candidates.
Turkish-Greek ties
Erdoğan on Friday further addressed the ties between archrivals Türkiye and Greece, who have eased into a thaw after deadly tragedies earlier this year inspired a positive momentum for better relations despite several outstanding disputes.
Erdoğan and his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis held a rare in-person meeting in Vilnius, too, as they shook hands and agreed to increase contact to build a "climate of trust" and revive the high-level cooperation council by holding its next meeting in Greece in the fall.
"Türkiye and Greece are two neighbors with a long shared history known to all but we don’t want relations to go on like this," Erdoğan told reporters when asked about his meeting with Mitsotakis.
Referring to the legislative and presidential elections both leaders went through in their countries in the last two months, Erdoğan said, "We both want to take steps in a positive direction as two leaders who won two elections. My exclusive request from Athens includes the problems about Western Thrace."
The Western Thrace region near the border with Türkiye is home to a substantial, long-established Muslim Turkish minority of approximately 150,000 people. The rights of Turks there are guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, but the situation has deteriorated significantly in recent decades, with Greece refusing to implement ECHR rulings, something Ankara has repeatedly condemned.
Interventions in education in their native tongue and their right to appoint their own religious figures like muftis (Muslim clerics) are among several issues Greece’s Turkish minority has drawn attention to internationally as having worsened during Mitsotakis’ rule.
"We want to overcome these problems and come to an agreement, especially about the muftis," Erdoğan said Friday.
He revealed the ambassadors and ministries in both countries would launch talks that would pave the way for Athens to make preparations for a solution.
"Later we the leaders will meet to take every necessary mutual step," Erdoğan assured.
The two uneasy NATO allies have long feuded over maritime borders and energy exploration rights in disputed parts of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, as the status of Aegean islands, overlapping claims of airspace, the ethnically split island of Cyprus and irregular migration, but the rights of Western Thrace Turks have been largely overlooked by the Greek side.
Mitsotakis too recently said the neighbors had "obviously significant differences" but refused to recognize any major issue other than the delimitation dispute.