Turkey Issues Warning To EU

Political consultations between Turkey and Russia in Ankara are taking place on the same day as an informal summit in Granada (Spain) between the European Union and the European Political Community (EPC)

On Thursday, October 5, Turkey and Russia will hold the first round of “political” consultations in Ankara in order to determine “a common line of cooperation with various international economic organizations.” Consultations between Turkey and Russia are taking place “in parallel” to the informal summit of the European Union and the European Political Community (EPC), a platform created in 2022 for political and strategic discussions on the future of Europe, which will be held in Granada (Spain) on October 5 and 6.

International observers emphasize that the Turkish delegation at the consultations in Ankara will be headed by Deputy Minister, Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department for Relations with the European Union, Mehmet Kemal Bozay, and the head of the Russian representatives will be Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin, who previously worked at the UN in New York and Geneva.

Moscow sources report that Bozay and Pankin will discuss joint work between Turkey and Russia within the framework of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC), also in light of the former agreement on Ukrainian grain and the export of Russian grain through Turkish ports.

In September 2023 alone, Russia exported 7 million tons of wheat, which is the highest volume in the last six years. Russian exports are dominated by wheat that was imported last month by Egypt (780,000 tons), Turkey (616,000 tons), and Iran (490,000 tons).

According to Turkish media, the consultations in Ankara should send a very strong message to Brussels about the imminent expansion of the EU, which will be the central topic of the summit in Granada. Turkey is once again missing from the list of about ten candidate countries. As if desiring to “aggravate the situation,” the European Commission announced the publication of a report on the current situation and prospects for the development of relations between Turkey and the European Union, which “will contain some conclusions” that will definitely have little or no appeal to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has already stated that “he expects nothing more” from the EU.

If the European Union does not correct its mistakes, especially on liberalizing visas for Turks, Brussels “can no longer expect anything from Turkey,” said the Turkish leader, according to whom Turkey also “expects nothing more from the European Union, which kept us behind closed doors for 40 years.” Erdogan said Ankara “will no longer tolerate any new demands or conditions regarding the accession process” of Turkey. “We have kept all the promises made to the EU, but they have fulfilled almost none of theirs,” the Turkish president said, referring to Ankara’s approval of Sweden’s entry into NATO, which is still awaiting ratification by Ankara’s parliament.