European Parliament's credibility questioned over its Turkey stance

The co-chair of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee and member of Parliament, Ahmet Berat Conkar, criticized Turkey's 2015 progress report for the EU membership process that was released by the European Parliament (EP) last week, and stressed that the EP chose to continue its negative, prejudiced and unfair conduct toward Turkey.

Conkar said that he exhibited a willingness to engage in dialogue and exchange views in good faith from the beginning and offered his neutral counsel to many members of the EP – including his Greek counterpart on the Joint Parliamentary Committee, Manolis Kefalogiannis, and the rapporteur of the EP's resolution, Kati Piri. The EP, however, has responded only with obstructionism against Turkey's accession process, he added.

Expressing his concern over the report, Conkar said the EP is facing a serious credibility problem for acting like a mouthpiece for illegitimate organizations and reflecting the convictions of a marginal few but shunning the silent majority. "The sooner the EP addresses this problem the better," he said. "Any nation that believes in itself, is proud of its achievements, its faith and its culture would maintain a negotiation only with fair and honorable terms. The rest is much ado about nothing."