Reviving Türkiye-EU ties in everyone's interest, says Turkish foreign minister

By Selen Valente Rasquinho

BRUSSELS (AA) – A positive approach by the EU without establishing a link to the Cyprus issue will serve the common interest, the Turkish foreign minister said on Thursday.

"We believe that reviving Türkiye-EU relations is in everyone's interest. However, we emphasized that establishing a link between the Cyprus issue and Türkiye-EU relations is not a healthy method and will not yield any results,” Hakan Fidan told Anadolu after attending the EU’s informal foreign ministers' meeting.

The meeting, which was held at the EU Council headquarters in Brussels, lasted about two hours.

Emphasizing that EU membership is a strategic goal for Türkiye, he said they want to make progress on a positive agenda.

“If the EU also adopts a similar positive approach, this will be in everyone's interest," he added.

Ankara’s EU membership negotiations started in 2005 but entered a stalemate after 2007 due to the Cyprus issue and political opposition to Türkiye’s membership by several member states.

The island of Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.

In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was founded in 1983.

The Greek Cypriot administration was admitted to the European Union in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.

Türkiye fully supports a two-state solution on the island of Cyprus based on sovereign equality and equal international status.​​​​​​​

- Inviting Türkiye to meeting ‘positive development’

As for the invitation to the meeting, Fidan said it is a “positive development” in terms of reviving the ties with the EU as Türkiye has not been invited to these meetings for a while.

"Today, almost all of my EU colleagues emphasized that structural and regular dialogue and consultations should be continued with Türkiye in all areas, especially foreign, security and defense policies,” he said.

The EU envoys told Fidan that Türkiye is playing an important role in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the war in Gaza, Syria, Iraq, the Middle East, Africa and the South Caucasus.

They underlined the importance of Türkiye and the EU holding closer and deeper consultations and forming common policies.

Fidan said concrete steps should be taken on technical issues in order for relations to gain momentum.

"First of all, the established dialogue mechanisms that were suspended in 2019 need to be reactivated. Our expectations regarding the updating of the Customs Union continue,” he added.

- Visa Liberalization Dialogue

Fidan went on to say that one of the issues given priority was visa liberalization, adding that the relevant 66 criteria were met and that they were working with the relevant institutions to complete the remaining six criteria.

“Until visa liberalization is achieved, we continue to work to eliminate the difficulties and obstacles our citizens experience during the Schengen visa application process. We continue our contacts with the EU and member states to expand multiple-entry and long-term visas,” he added.

The Visa Liberalization Dialogue aims to lift the Schengen visa requirement for Turkish citizens during their short stays in the Schengen Area.​​​​​​​

Once it is finalized, all Turkish citizens with biometric passports will be able to travel for short stays in the Schengen Area without a visa for business, family, or touristic purposes.

The Schengen visa is valid for all EU member states except the UK and Ireland. Although Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein are not EU members, they are included in the Schengen system.

The dialogue was launched on Dec. 16, 2013, in parallel with the signature of the Türkiye-EU Readmission Agreement, based on the "Roadmap towards a visa-free regime with Türkiye," a document setting out the requirements that need to be met.

Ankara has met 66 of the 72 requirements listed into the roadmap organized in five thematic groups.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar