Özgür Özel, the leader of the main opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), was in Brussels on Wednesday for a series of talks with EU lawmakers who invited him and an EU rapporteur.
As he spoke at a meeting of Socialists and Democrats of the European Parliament in Belgium, Özel was confident about winning future general elections. “EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen waits for us to win the next election. I must remind her that postponing a meeting with the chair of a party that came first in the latest local elections is a risk in terms of corporate affairs,” he said.
Özel, who has helmed the party since 2023, after his predecessor Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu failed to end the dry spell of the CHP in elections for decades, boasted his party’s success in 47 years in an election. He claimed that, unlike the government’s “contradictory” stance on EU accession, the CHP aligned with the values of the continental bloc, saying that they represented a Türkiye that “turned its face toward West” since the last days of the Ottomans. Özel claimed that the next elections in Türkiye would be a “referendum” for Türkiye’s accession to the EU.
Under successive governments of the CHP’s main rival, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Türkiye had ups and downs in relations with the EU. However, Ankara never gave up the ambition of joining the bloc, as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan emphasized once more recently. Türkiye’s flourishing relations with BRICS countries and evolving ties with Asian countries in the Middle East were interpreted as a pursuit of alternatives to the EU, but Erdoğan denied this, highlighting multidimensional diplomacy based on mutual interests for the country.
Özel’s remarks came two days after Erdoğan reiterated EU ambition. Erdoğan stated that the existence of Europe as a global actor without giving Türkiye the place it deserved was increasingly becoming impossible. “To be clear, you cannot consider securing Europe without Türkiye. Our European friends should face this reality and advance our full membership process with a visionary approach,” Erdoğan said at the event attended by European ambassadors of the head of the EU delegation in Türkiye.
Türkiye has been a candidate for EU membership for over two decades, but talks stalled in 2016 over what Ankara says is the bloc’s “insistence on politicizing the issue.” Türkiye suggests it has fulfilled most of the criteria for membership. Though the accession process stalled, the country has remained a key economic and defense partner for the 27-member bloc.
