Turkey still wants to be in Europe ‘first division’: PM adviser

Agence France Presse
December 26, 2014 Friday 3:17 AM GMT

Turkey still wants to be in Europe ‘first division’: PM adviser

ISTANBUL, Dec 26 2014

Turkey’s leaders are committed to EU membership and still aim to play
in the “first division” of Europe despite a bitter row over a
crackdown on the opposition, a top adviser to Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu said.

Turkey’s aspirations to join the EU received a serious setback when
the latest police swoop on opposition media linked to President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan’s number one foe, Fethullah Gulen, led to an angry
slanging match between Ankara and Brussels.

Etyen Mahcupyan, a Turkish-Armenian who was named chief adviser to
Davutoglu in November, blamed the dispute on a lack of understanding
about Turkey in the West.

But he told AFP in an interview that despite the sometimes tough
rhetoric, Ankara had no intention of giving up on its decades-old bid
to join the 28-member bloc.

“AK Party (the ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP) absolutely,
100 percent, wants to join the EU and demonstrate its own power in
Europe,” he said.

“An enthusiastic and self-confident Recep Tayyip Erdogan cannot dream
of a Turkey which plays in the second division. He wants to play in
the first league, but as equal partners.”

Mahcupyan, however, criticised the West’s “negative” approach and what
he said was its failure to understand the government’s war against the
Gulen movement, which Erdogan has accused of orchestrating a plot to
bring him down when he was prime minister.

“The Western world is unaware of what’s going on in Turkey. They do
not understand and they are not very much willing to understand,” said
Mahcupyan.

Erdogan has blamed the Gulen movement — known as Hizmet (Service) or
Cemaat (Community) — of concocting a corruption scandal last year
that rocked his government and has purged thousands of his followers
from the police and the judiciary.

– ‘Attempt to topple Erdogan’-

A Turkish court has issued an arrest warrant for the US-based Gulen,
but the EU was particularly concerned by raids earlier this month that
targeted pro-Gulen media.

“It is very clear that the Gulen Cemaat attempted to topple the
government and particularly to create a period without Tayyip
Erdogan,” said Mahcupyan, adding that it was an “abortive” initiative
without military involvement.

Mahcupyan said the Gulenists established a “hierarchy” in key state
institutions in charge of policy-making and the “coup” was staged by
that “core group,” estimated to number between 5,000 and 10,000 out of
up to three million sympathisers.

“I cannot say all are involved,” he said, adding that most Gulenists
only heard about what happened from the media.”As far as I can see,
Tayyip Erdogan and the AK Party are trying to explain this as much as
they can and convince them to part ways with Cemaat of their free
will, so that the government can deal with the remaining core group.”

Critics at home and abroad have accused Erdogan of consolidating power
against his domestic and international detractors, with a recent New
York Times editorial labelling him an “authoritarian leader living in
a parallel universe”.

Mahcupyan likened the ruling AKP, co-founded by Erdogan, to a
“pendulum swinging between authoritarianism and democracy” and said
the party showed a reflex for tougher measures whenever it saw a
threat to its survival.

“I can say it is a party closer to democracy… It is a very doubtful
party which thinks the rug under its feet could be pulled at any
moment.”

Mahcupyan said Erdogan and Davutoglu had similar ideas and their
differences in style were complementary.

“Tayyip Erdogan is the man who clears bushes in a wood with a sword in
his hand. He does not stop. If he stops, there’s a threat. He always
moves forward just in case,” he said.

“Davutoglu is the man who will install tiles on the road. If Tayyip
Erdogan does not open that path, Davutoglu cannot furnish that path.
They complement each other.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress