Mehmet Perinçek analyzed Turkey and Ukraine’s accession process to the EU for Russia’s Izvestia channel. Perinçek’s commentary in Russian is translated into English by United World International.
The EU will never accept Türkiye because it wants it to always wait at the door of membership. In this way, it hinders Ankara’s cooperation with Moscow and Beijing, Turkish political analyst Mehmet Perinçek pointed out in a conversation with Izvestia on 21 March.
“The EU will never accept Türkiye into its club because Türkiye has a completely different culture, it’s a completely different civilization. This is a huge trap for Türkiye,” he noted.
In his opinion, the European Union every time imposes new conditions for Türkiye to join the Union because it is easier to destroy Turkish statehood that way. He called Türkiye’s accession to the EU a huge trap. Ukraine is waiting for the same consideration, the political scientist added:
“Ukraine should get rid of the patronage of the West, which has already made its mark by fueling the conflict between Kyiv and Moscow. Ukraine suffers precisely from the influence, these self-serving goals of the West. Therefore, the process will be more destructive for both Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Ukraine and the Ukrainian people should link their fate with Eurasian countries,” the expert concluded.
“They are simply using this process to impose their policies on Ukraine, Türkiye and other countries. So, of course, this is a never-ending process for both Ukraine and Türkiye,” Perinçek added.
Earlier, on 19 March, the Politico newspaper pointed out that the EU does not want to publicly raise the topic of Ukraine and other countries joining the union because of angry farmers and the upcoming European Parliament elections. Preparations for possible integration should be conducted in secret, out of the public eye, the newspaper quoted the EU’s position as saying.
At the same time, back in July 2023, EU foreign policy spokesman Peter Stano told Izvestia that the EU would not be able to accept Türkiye in 2024 because the accession process takes time. He added that Türkiye is not yet ready to be granted even a visa-free regime.
Türkiye has remained a candidate for EU membership since 1999. Negotiations on Ankara’s admission to the EU began in 2005, but stalled. In 2009, the EU blocked negotiations on several points before Ankara would withdraw its troops from Northern Cyprus. Talks on visa liberalization began in 2013. By the year 2018, the European Council stated that Türkiye’s accession talks had effectively stalled. Since 1995, Türkiye and the EU have been part of the Customs Union.