ISTANBUL: President Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey did not need to join the European Union “at all costs” and could instead become part of a security bloc dominated by China, Russia and Central Asian nations, local media reported Sunday.
Erdogan also warned NATO against sheltering “terrorist” soldiers after Turkish officers in the alliance’s command reportly sought asylum after a failed putsch.
His comments come as Turkey’s decades-long hopes of joining the European Union have reached a nadir, driven by the aftermath of the July 15 botched coup.
“Turkey should first of all feel relaxed about the EU and not be fixated” about joining it, Erdogan told Turkish journalists on a plane from Uzbekistan, Hurriyet newspaper and other media reported.
“Some may criticize me but I express my opinion. For example, I say ‘why shouldn’t Turkey be in the Shanghai 5?,” he said.
“I hope that if there is a positive development there, I think if Turkey were to join the Shanghai Five, it will enable it to act with much greater ease.”
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) — also called the Shanghai Pact — is a loose security and economic bloc led by Russia and China. Other members are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Erdogan said he had already discussed the idea with Russian President Vladimir Putin and with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
NATO member Turkey’s prospects of joining the EU look more remote than ever after 11 years of negotiations. European leaders have been critical of its record on democratic freedoms, while Ankara has grown increasingly exasperated by what it sees as Western condescension.
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan speak Turkic languages, and Ankara signed up in 2013 as a “dialogue partner” saying it shared “the same destiny” as members of the bloc.
Mongolia, India, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan are SCO observers, while Belarus, like Turkey, is a dialogue partner.
Dialogue partners are entitled to take part in ministerial-level and some other meetings of the SCO, but do not have voting rights.
Erdogan last week urged Turks to be patient until the end of the year over relations with Europe and said a referendum could be held on EU membership in 2017.
The EU is treading a fine line in relations with Turkey: it needs Ankara’s continued help in curbing a huge flow of migrants, especially from Syria, but is alarmed by Turkey’s crackdown on opponents since a failed coup attempt in July.
More than 110,000 people have been sacked or suspended since the abortive putsch, and some 36,000 arrested. Media outlets have also been shut down.
The government says the crackdown is justified by the gravity of the threat to the state from the events of July 15, in which more than 240 people were killed.
Erdogan has several times floated plans for Turkey to join the SCO, a move that could scupper its long-standing EU membership bid.
The SOC option became clouded, though, when a Russian warplane was downed by the Turkish air force last November.
Turkish media reported in August that Nazarbayev mediated a deal between Ankara and Moscow to smooth over the dispute.
Turkey formally applied to become an EU member in 1987 and accession talks only began in 2005, even though Ankara’s aspirations to become part of the bloc dates back to the 1960s.
Brussels has harshly criticized the Turkish government’s crackdown on alleged coup plotters, urging Ankara to comply with rights and freedoms criteria.
Erdogan this week warned the EU to decide by year’s end on its membership bid, threatening to otherwise call a referendum on this matter.
Turkey and the EU agreed to speed up membership talks in March as part of an accord on curbing migrant flows into Greece.
The deal was clinched in return for several incentives for Ankara including EU cash assistance for Syrian refugees in Turkey, as well as visa-free travel to Schengen area by Turks.
But the process, which was already in difficulty, is on a sharp downward spiral following Ankara’s crackdown after the attempted coup.
NATO warned
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday warned NATO against sheltering “terrorist” soldiers after Turkish officers in the alliance’s command reportly sought asylum after a failed putsch.
“How can a terrorist, a terrorist soldier, a soldier who has been involved in plotting a coup, be employed in NATO?” Erdogan told journalists on a plane from Uzbekistan, the Milliyet newspaper reported.
“They cannot do such a thing,” he said. On Friday, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said a number of Turkish officers serving in NATO command positions had requested asylum following the botched coup on July 15.
Neither Stoltenberg nor Erdogan provided a number, although Erdogan said it was not high.
Erdogan said his government demanded that soldiers who asked for asylum be extradited and warned the alliance against providing them with a haven.
“NATO cannot entertain accepting asylum requests of this kind. Those in question are accused of terror,” he said. Stoltenberg said the NATO countries concerned would make their own asylum decisions rather than the alliance headquarters in Brussels.
“We would be wrong if we started to go into that kind of legal issue; that’s for the judicial system” of the countries concerned, Stoltenberg said.
Stoltenberg is due to meet Monday with Erdogan on the margins of a NATO meeting in Istanbul.
Erdogan has accused western powers of failure to show solidarity in the aftermath of the coup bid, which he blames on rogue elements in the army led by Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen.
He has angrily batted away criticism of his crackdown against alleged plotters.
Within the military, 9,300 army personnel have been arrested, including 118 generals and admirals, while thousands more have been discharged dishonorably or suspended.