PNN – The Turkish Foreign Ministry called the accusations raised in the annual report of the European Commission regarding Ankara’s request for membership in the European Union as unfair and declared: “The European Union treats our membership request in a biased manner.”
According to Pakistan News Network’s report, citing Reuters, the Turkish Foreign Ministry stated that the European Commission’s annual report on Turkey’s long-term application for membership in the European Union is unfair and biased.
The European Commission criticized Turkey’s serious decline in democratic standards, rule of law, human rights and judicial independence in a report on Wednesday.
In the report of the European Commission on Wednesday, it was also stated that Ankara does not follow the principles of the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms in the fight against terrorism.
In response to this report, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey stated in a statement: We categorically reject the baseless claims and unfair criticisms, especially regarding the political criteria and the chapter related to the judiciary and human rights of the European Commission report.
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Calling these accusations unfair, Ankara emphasized the dishonesty of the European Union’s approach and the obvious double standards of this Union and added: Issues of human rights and fundamental freedoms are disputed, even among EU member states.
The report of the European Commission aims to update Turkey’s progress towards meeting the EU membership standards and can improve the relationship between Ankara and the EU, which is currently also affected by the migration issue and recently due to the war between Israel and the Hamas group in Gaza.
Turkey’s attempt to join the European Union after the start of membership negotiations in 2005 has remained fruitless for years.
The European Commission announced on Wednesday in its annual report that Turkey has taken a serious step back in terms of democratic standards, the rule of law, human rights and the independence of the judiciary.
The European Commission added: Although Turkey has made judicial reforms, the structural deficiencies in the country’s judicial system have not been resolved.
In its annual report on Turkey’s EU membership negotiations, which have been stalled for years, the European Commission stated: The lack of targeted, uniform, solid and appropriate criteria for the recruitment and promotion of judges and prosecutors is still a cause for concern.