Spotlight: Turkey rejects EU call to freeze membership bid

ANKARA, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Turkey rejected the European Parliament's (EP) vote calling for a suspension of European Union's accession process with Ankara, a move which came at a time when relations were just picking up after a troublesome period.

The EP voted on Wednesday a report that calls on the European Commission and member states to formally suspend accession negotiations with Turkey, citing a serious deterioration of human rights, freedoms, and rule of law in the country.

The decision is mostly symbolic as Turkey's 15-year EU accession bid has long been stalled because of some member nations' hostility, even before Ankara's crackdown in the wake of the failed coup attempt in 2016, said the EP report.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry rejected the European Parliament vote as "one-sided and baseless" shortly after the vote.

"European Union membership remains our strategic goal," the ministry said in a statement, calling on the bloc to hold constructive talks and modernize the Custom Union.

During Wednesday's vote, European lawmakers also recognized Turkey's role in hosting more than 3.5 million Syrian migrants,calling on European funds to be diverted from the Turkish government to support civil society.

Experts said that the troubled Turkey-EU relations have in the past surmounted such difficult times and should continue on the basis of "mutual interest."

However, they also underlined the need for Ankara to retake as soon as possible the path of reforms as it did before the launch of accession negotiations in 2004.

"Turkey needs the EU and vice versa. The accession negotiations are already stalled so it's largely a symbolic move," Mustafa Nail Alkan, expert on EU affairs at Ankara's Haci Bayram Veli University, told Xinhua.

The European Commission will not follow suit and suspend the talks, the longest ever for a candidate country to the 28-nation bloc, he said.

"The EU would surely not lose Turkey," Alkan added, citing especially the critical deal inked in 2016 between Ankara and Brussels, which aimed to stem the migrant influx to Europe.

This expert emphasized the fact that a new European Parliament will be formed after elections in May and would surely not take the path of severing ties with Ankara altogether.

Although non-binding, the EP's vote, a first concerning a candidate country, "displays a very important symbolism with regard to Turkey's troubled journey to the EU," said Serkan Demirtas, a political analyst and journalist.

He told Xinhua that it was the same European Parliament which had voted in favor of the launch of full membership talks with Turkey in late 2004.

Just a day after the EP's vote, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu attended a Syria summit by the EU, proving that there is important cooperation between Ankara and Brussels.

And on Friday, after a four-year hiatus, the Turkey-EU Association Council convened in Brussels, another sign that ties are robust after more than a two-year freeze in relations after the failed coup in Turkey.

In Ankara, the mood has not changed towards the EU despite the EP's vote and pro-government media is urging for more Turkish-European partnership.

"EP's decision is not a significant turning point in the relations between Turkey and the EU. Steps to strengthen the ties and high-level official contacts are expected to stimulate the relations after the local elections in Turkey on March 31 despite all the harmful efforts," wrote researcher and scholar Talha Kose in an article in Sabah daily.

"Turkey and the EU should cooperate and collaborate more, not less, to reduce the political, economic and security-related uncertainties in a time of significant transformation in world politics," he added.