Turkey’s crackdown on dissent disrupts EU-Turkey relations: Europe in difficult balancing act

“Business as usual with Turkey cannot continue.” That was the message MEPs sent when they voted on a report about Turkey’s EU accession process on May 7 in Strasbourg. Amid a crackdown on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s political rivals as well as on protesters, MEPs said that EU membership talks with Turkey cannot be restarted in the current circumstances. At the same time, the European Union does not want to shut the door on Turkey completely, as Ankara remains a significant partner within NATO and its interests overlap with the EU’s in Ukraine.