Tag: Turkey

EXCLUSIVE / EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva has urged the United Nations Security Council to adopt a declaration on the humanitarian situation in Syria, telling EurActiv in an interview that such a decision could greatly improve the fate of millions of citizens, half of them children, who are trapped by the ongoing civil war.

Energy-rich Turkmenistan yesterday (15 August) launched a $2 billion project to build a new port on the Caspian Sea designed to boost exports.

Germany proposed yesterday (24 June) postponing a new round of EU membership talks with Turkey by about four months to signal the bloc's displeasure at its crackdown on anti-government protests. 

The Turkish government reacted furiously to a resolution adopted by the European Parliament, condemning Ankara for not being conciliatory in the face of protests that left several dead and thousands injured.  EurActiv Turkey reports. 

Members of  the European Parliament expressed grave concern yesterday (12 June) about the Turkish government’s response to the Gezi Park protests that have polarised the country over the last three weeks. There was less consensus on whether speeding up EU accession negotiations could help the democratisation process in Turkey, however, EurActiv Turkey reports.

Accepting criticism from people and movements will do Turkey good, as protests give a sense of urgency for a reform of the constitution that should lower the 10% threshold for parliament and give people more rights via-a-vis the state, writes Ska Keller.

As the most largest anti-government protests in Turkey’s recent past look set to enter a third week, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and EU Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle sparred over the issue at a conference held in Istanbul on Friday (7 June).

Thousands of Turks have marched in several European cities to protest the violent crackdown on demonstrators in Istanbul and other cities, and against what they see as an ongoing Islamisation of their country. But some reports say some Turks living abroad see the protests as “foreign-inspired”.

The surviving member of a German neo-Nazi cell went on trial on Monday (6 May) for a series of racist killings that scandalised Germany and exposed the security services' inability or reluctance to recognise far-right crime.

A world-renowned concert pianist was given a suspended jail sentence in Turkey today (15 April) for insulting religious values on Twitter, a case which has become a cause célèbre for Turks alarmed about creeping Islamic conservatism.

The EU’s negotiations, or rather non-negotiations with Turkey, turned out to be tricks, jeopardising the EU’s reputation and respectability. What the Germans and others don’t seem to realise is that they expect more from Turkey than they do from themselves, writes Dr. Petra Erler.

Turkey is committed to joining the European Union despite mounting frustration over decades of talks on the issue, but has little appetite for adopting the euro currency, a senior Turkish official said yesterday (13 February).

EU candidate Turkey and South Korea, nations that have watched their own fortunes surge in a generation, are ramping up aid programmes for poor nations at a time when such spending in Europe is under threat, a EurActiv analysis of aid statistics shows.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said today (4 February) that his country’s half-century wait to become part of the European Union was “unforgivable” and it should be admitted without delay.

Cyprus licenced Italy's ENI and South Korea's Kogas for offshore gas exploration yesterday (24 January), in a boon to an economy in line for an international bailout because of its exposure to debt-crippled Greece.

Cyprus' economic adjustment programme and banking sector reforms should be seen as a catalyst that will reinforce macroeconomic and financial stability in the country. Over the longer term, the exploitation of natural gas discoveries should substantially boost growth prospects and help lower debt, writes Stavros Papagianneas.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey should consider bringing back the death penalty, a decade after Ankara abolished capital punishment as part of reforms aimed at EU membership.

The European Union will lose Turkey if it doesn't grant it membership by 2023, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday (30 October).

In its yearly status report on the progress EU hopefuls are making towards membership, the European Commission has good news for Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo. The report - published today (10 October) - also calls for a resumption of negotiations with EU candidate Turkey that are stalled because of the long-running territorial dispute with Cyprus.

Cyprus will not accept a bailout from international lenders if it involves privatisations and social welfare cuts, President Demetris Christofias said yesterday (3 October), with the indebted government that holds the rotating EU presidency set to propose alternative savings.

Macedonia has accused Greece of dumping illegal migrants on its territory, the Macedonian daily Dnevnik reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources. 

Athens has cracked down on illegal immigrants, detaining more than 6,000 last weekend (4-5 August) of whom 1,600 are now set for deportation.

A consortium backing the Gazprom-led South Stream pipeline expects to make a final investment decision within months, says the head of one of its second largest shareholder, Italy’s Eni energy.

Politicians and intellectuals from Northern Cyprus, divided from the South since 1974, called on France and Germany to push the island toward reunification, which would open the door to full EU membership benefits and avoid Turkish assimilation.