A planned closer military cooperation with Turkey by the European Union has sparked criticism. The Greens warn that one cannot rely on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to the “Spiegel”.
In Turkey, Erdogan’s most significant oppositional rival, the Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, was arrested on Wednesday morning. The EU Commission had recently published a white paper on the strategic orientation in defense policy.
The document speaks of a “mutually beneficial partnership” with Turkey, as the NATO member is already a security partner for most EU states and this relationship is to be strengthened.
The Greens consider this to be a risk. The EU should “first focus on closing capability gaps in the defense sector, so that, when it comes to the crunch, we can stand together with Ukraine on our own two feet” said the Greens’ EU foreign affairs spokesperson, Hannah Neumann, to the “Spiegel”. In a next step, those should be more strongly integrated who “share our values and political goals”, meaning for instance Norway, Canada and the United Kingdom.
“I would not want to rely on Turkey under Erdogan and I can hardly imagine that we will share comprehensive intelligence or military reconnaissance information with him” Neumann said. The prospects for a deeper cooperation have worsened following the arrest of the Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu. This is like a “coup from above” according to Neumann.