MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the preparation of the special European Council summit focusing on the dangerous escalation and the role of Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean
14.9.2020 - (2020/2774(RSP))
pursuant to Rule 132(2) of the Rules of Procedure
Jérôme Rivière, Thierry Mariani, Peter Kofod, Jaak Madison, Harald Vilimsky, Tom Vandendriessche
on behalf of the ID Group
B9‑0258/2020
European Parliament resolution on the preparation of the special European Council summit focusing on the dangerous escalation and the role of Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the Treaty of Lausanne of 24 July 1923, and in particular to Articles 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 and 44 thereof, relating to religious freedom in Turkey and the commitment to non-discrimination against non-Muslim populations,
– having regard to Articles 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Treaty of Lausanne, delimiting permanently the borders of the Republic of Turkey,
– having regard to the accession of the Republic of Turkey to the United Nations Organisation on 24 October 1945, and its commitment to respect the UN’s founding Charter,
– having regard to the process of accession of the Republic of Turkey to the European Union, and the opening of accession negotiations on 17 December 2004,
– having regard to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Turkey is a party,
– having regard to Article 16 of the Treaty of Lausanne, in which the Republic of Turkey declares that it irrevocably renounces all rights over territories beyond its borders as recognised therein, including the territories placed under Mandate of the League of Nations (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq);
– having regard to the report of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities published on 2 July 1985, which describes the massacre of Armenians as genocide,
– having regard to its resolution of 18 June 1987 on a political solution to the Armenian question, in which it recognised the Armenian genocide[1],
– having regard to its resolution of 28 September 2005 on the opening of negotiations with Turkey[2], in which it called on Turkey to recognise the Armenian genocide, considering ‘this act as a prerequisite for accession to the European Union’;
– having regard to its resolution of 15 April 2015 on the centenary of the Armenian Genocide[3], in which it reaffirmed its recognition of the Armenian genocide and called on Turkey to recognise the genocide and ‘to carry out in good faith a complete inventory of the Armenian and other cultural heritage destroyed or damaged in the course of the last century on its territory’;
– having regard to Rule 132(2) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas Turkey regularly violates the sovereignty of Greece and Cyprus;
B. whereas the Turkish seismic research vessel Oruç Reis regularly passes off the coast of Kastellorizo, i.e. in Greek territorial waters;
C. whereas this vessel, accompanied by military vessels, has been conducting illegal research in the Eastern Mediterranean since 10 August 2020;
D. whereas in the face of the international criticism triggered by these manoeuvres, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has declared: ‘They will understand that Turkey is strong enough politically, economically and militarily to tear up the immoral maps and documents’;
E. whereas Turkish nationalists occupied the island of Kastellorizo in 1974;
F. whereas Turkey has illegally occupied 37 % of the territory of Cyprus since 1974;
G. whereas the Turkish army has ‘lit up’ the French frigate Courbet on three occasions while this vessel was enforcing the UN embargo on the delivery of arms to Libya;
H. whereas Turkey is occupying a large part of northern Syria, without the agreement or invitation of the Syrian Arab Republic; whereas the central point of this occupation is Idlib, the main landmark of Islamist groups fighting in Syria; whereas Turkey is using this situation as a means of blackmailing the EU;
I. whereas Turkey has sent more than 5 000 Syrian radical Islamists to Libya and is now deploying its troops in the country;
J. whereas Turkey, on Operation Tiger Claw, regularly bombards north-western Iraq without invitation either from Erbil or Baghdad and in doing so endangers many border villages near Zakho, some of which are inhabited by Eastern Christians;
K. whereas the extradition agreements signed by Turkey with Kosovo and Albania, which Ankara is using to hunt down its opponents, contravene international conventions on the right of asylum in political matters;
L. whereas Turkey is strengthening its ties with the countries of the Western Balkans, in particular Bosnia and Herzegovina;
M. whereas if it were to exert a preponderant influence in the Balkans and Libya, Turkey would then control the two main migratory access routes to Europe, posing an existential threat to the European nations;
N. whereas President Erdoğan has made many provocative statements against the European nations, such as, ‘France, in particular, should stop taking measures that increase tensions. They will get nothing by behaving like big shots’;
O. whereas there have been numerous violations of religious freedom in Turkey, such as the detention of Pastor Brunson, the lack of serious investigation into the murders of or attacks against Christians in the Tur Abdin region, for example the cases of Simoni and Hurmuz Diril, and the encouragement of the erasure of Syriac culture;
P. whereas the Basilica of Saint Sophia and the Church of Saint Saviour-in-Chora have been transformed into mosques;
Q. whereas the Turkish government constantly refers to the Ottoman dynasties and the fall of Constantinople, while the EU rarely resorts to the edifying examples of the Battle of Lepanto and the siege of Vienna;
R. whereas the AKP, Turkey’s governing party, has branches in many EU Member States and which President Erdoğan uses to threaten European governments;
S. whereas the ‘Grey Wolves’, a violent militia, are present on European soil;
T. whereas on March 17 2017, the Turkish minister of the interior said: ‘If you want, we can open the way for the 15 000 refugees that we do not send you every month and take your breath away’;
U. whereas on 10 August 2020 President Erdoğan said: ‘When it comes to fighting, we do not hesitate to give martyrs. (...) The question is: are those who rise up against us in the Mediterranean and in the Near East ready to make the same sacrifices?’;
V. whereas the EU has provided Turkey with EUR 6 billion under the agreement of 18 of march 2016, EUR 14.5 billion under the pre-accession framework since 2003, and EUR 28.9 billion have been invested by the European Investment Bank since 2000, making a total of more than EUR 49 billion;
W. whereas the Turkish regime has repeated violated human rights, particularly since the attempted coup of 2016; whereas Turkey has been condemned more than 3 000 times by the European Court of Human Rights since 1959; whereas members of the opposition have suffered arbitrary arrest; whereas on 27 August 2020, Ebru Timtik, a Turkish lawyer accused of terrorism, dies in prison after 238 days on hunger strike; whereas Turkey mistreats its Kurdish population; whereas Havrin Khalaf, a young Kurdish politician, was murdered on 13 October 2019 by mercenaries in the service of Turkey;
X. whereas the Turkish President maintains close relations with organisations recognised as terrorists by the EU; whereas President Erdoğan met with the President of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Ismael Haniyeh, and the delegation accompanying him, in August 2020; whereas Ankara offered support to and entered into an objective alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt before its fall in 2013; whereas many ‘Brotherists’ condemned in their country find refuge in Turkey;
1. Calls on the Commission and Council to unconditionally and irrevocably terminate all negotiations regarding the accession of Turkey to the EU, as it is not a European country and does not act in accordance with European values, particularly those aimed at preserving a peaceful Europe, and should therefore not become a member of the European Union;
2. Calls on the Commission and Council to terminate all funding to Turkey in terms of the pre-accession process, the current and planned MFF, the EU Facility for Refugees, and in terms of the EU-Turkey action plan on migration; calls on the EU, furthermore, to stop all EIB loans to Turkey;
3. Considers that the EU should retaliate economically and politically in response to the unacceptable aggression displayed by the Turkish regime, and therefore proposes that the Customs Union Decision which took effect on 1 January 1996 be suspended for a renewable period of six months;
4. Calls on the EU to demand that Turkey reimburse part of the sums paid out, both in the framework of pre-accession and under the agreement on migrants, as compensation for the harm caused to member countries such as Cyprus and Greece;
5. Proposes that the North Atlantic Council should henceforth exclude Turkey from its meetings until Turkey ceases to violate the provisions of the North Atlantic Treaty; invites NATO explore possible legal avenues to expel a State Party from the alliance;
6. Invites all EU heads of state or government to condemn Turkish aggression in all its current forms and to express their unconditional support for and solidarity with Greece and Cyprus in their fight to protect their territorial integrity and their efforts to protect the wider European continent, with respect for the sovereignty of the Member States in the field of foreign and security policy;
7. Urges the Commission to express strongly its support for Greece and Cyprus, which are alone in facing Turkey’s attacks; invites all Member States to provide support to those countries, even military aid, and to contribute to the strengthening of control of the Union’s external borders in these areas, with respect for the sovereignty of the Member States in the field of foreign and security policy;
8. Condemns solemnly the total silence and lack of solidarity of the Commission with Greece and Cyprus, and also with France during the military aggression by Turkey against a French naval vessel;
9. Deplores the situation of religious freedom in Turkey, where minorities, particularly Christian minorities, are increasingly attacked and marginalised;
10. Invites all Member States to stop all joint operations with Turkey in the Middle East and in the Arab world;
11. Invites all Member States to strengthen their vigilance on Turkish influence groups present in Europe; encourages the monitoring of militant activities serving the interests of the Turkish regime, particularly through cultural and religious structures; encourages all Member States to send back to Turkey any Turkish AKP militants present in their territory;
12. Calls the Commission to restrict Turkish access to the EU market;
13. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the President of the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the President of the European Council and the Presidency in office of the Council.