The European Commission is allegedly suppressing a critical report into the worsening civil rights situation in Turkey, ahead of national elections next Sunday, November 1st.
German newspaper Die Welt Am Sonntag reports the Commission, headed by Jean-Claude Juncker, is sitting on a report which claims the Islamist government, run by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party (AKP) is “backsliding on civil rights”.
Die Welt claims to have seen an unpublished draft of the Commission report which is “sharply critical of the human rights and rule of law situation in Turkey”.
According to Der Spiegel, political activists and journalists are routinely “intimidated” and hampered by “excessive use of force”, according to the report. It also slams Turkey’s approach to homosexuals.
The awkward news of the suppression of the report comes just one week after German Chancellor Angela Merkel travelled to Turkey to shore up President Erdogan following a deal between the European Union (EU) and Turkey on how to deal with the ongoing migrant crisis.
Mrs. Merkel – who was praised by Jean Claude Juncker this week for “ignoring public opinion” on the migrant crisis – agreed to pay in excess of €3bn to Turkey, though the Turkish Prime Minister soon took to his country’s media to announce that they already wanted more money, and indeed wouldn’t stop all migrants moving into mainland Europe.
And the report will also address the heinous treatment of Kurds in Turkey, and admonishes the AKP-led government for paying more attention to the PKK, a Kurdish terrorist group, than ISIS.
Last week Breitbart London reported that a senior source inside the EU was concerned that Turkey would use the €3bn+ to target its Kurdish population, perhaps intending to provide them with free passports and a route into Europe, so as to rid the country of them.
Part of the deal struck by Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Erdogan was the liberalisation of visa controls between Turkey and the EU, along with a plan to “fast track” the Islamist country’s membership of the European Union.
This is the second time the report has been delayed.
Key players across Europe urging the acceptance of Turkey into the EU include Chancellor Merkel, ALDE leader Guy Verhofstadt, and Conservative Party MEP Daniel Hannan.
The Turkish government has taken steps to ban Twitter and imprison journalists in recent years, as the government loses its grip on public approval, with Kurdish parties climbing in the polls.
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