EU report criticising Türkiye’s stance against Israeli massacre, ‘shameful’: AK Party

“The European Union Commission's 2023 Türkiye Report, like previous reports, continues to reflect a biased approach towards Türkiye, maintaining the same fanatical assessments,” the spokesperson of the governing AK Party in Türkiye said on Thursday.

The EU Commission on Wednesday released its annual report on EU candidate country Türkiye, as part of its 2023 Enlargement Package.

Ankara, with its statement, condemned the obstruction of existing high-level dialogue and cooperation mechanisms with Türkiye over issues such as foreign policy, regional developments, security, defence and sectoral matters.

It is shameful that this report highlights Türkiye’s stance against the Israeli massacre in Palestine as incompatible with the EU,” said the AK Party spokesperson Omer Celik. “Türkiye’s position will be appreciated by the ordinary people of Europe and the whole world,” he added.

Celik noted that the EU Commission, as well as leading EU states “have completely lost their authority to speak on behalf of humanitarian and universal values with their attitude in the face of the disaster in Gaza”.

“We are witnessing a strong divergence between European streets and European states,” said Omer Celik.

“Despite various obstacles, European streets have displayed an attitude in line with universal values and international law regarding the humanitarian disaster in Palestine,” he said.

“Once again, we greet the European peoples, while warning EU institutions about their actions, which will go down in history as a dark stain.”

Türkiye has been a leading actor in aid efforts, having already sent 10 aircraft carrying over 230 tonnes of humanitarian aid bound for Gaza to El Arish Airport, with the assistance of Egypt.