“Conspiracy hysteria” grips the Turkish ruling elite atop of which perches President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who sustains a constant vitriol against “enemies”. His aides and others in the ruling party march in lockstep. There can be no departure from the text he has set. It would be no exaggeration to say that Turkey today is in a state of heavy mobilisation, as though on the march against an array of mythical monsters at home and abroad. Recently, Justice and Development Party (AKP) officials and the single-voiced chorus of the media have locked horns with a most frightful fiend. It is not the familiar foes — Fethullah Gulen, the PKK or the banned far left revolutionary parties — this time. Rather it is the armies of those who refer to themselves as “liberals” but whom Erdogan and his clique have unmasked as “traitors” who aid and abet terrorism. It is not enough that the US is sheltering the Muslim preacher cum coup-making mastermind in Pennsylvania and working with the Kurds in Syria, who Ankara brands as terrorists. Right next door in that other half of the nasty West, Turkey is staring at the now hate-filled, double faces of Europeans whose policymakers take all actions possible against the “heir to the glory” of the Ottoman Empire. Worse yet, “barely a month passes without one of them attacking President Erdogan in order to advance their personal interests.” Ibrahim Kalin, presidential aide and current press secretary in the elegant presidential complex, abbreviates the crisis with Europe, conveniently skipping over the real reasons which have to do with the disappearance of the rule of law and political freedoms in Turkey. The EU Parliament's approval, last Thursday, of a non-binding decision advising EU members to freeze accession talks with Turkey was not what triggered the “conspiracy hysteria” in Ankara. That mentality and discourse has prevailed among Turkish decision-makers for more than a year, mounting in tandem with Europe's frustration at the package of domestic security measures passed by the AKP-controlled Turkish parliament last year. Kati Piri, the rapporteur for Turkey in the European Parliament, reacted angrily to the repressive measures. She stressed that over the past two years Ankara had become an increasing source of concern to all European parties and that, now, with powers greatly expanded, the use of violence against citizens will increase. Also at the time, a number of European intellectuals and politicians, including a former prime minister and some former ministers, penned an open letter harshly criticising Erdogan and his ruling party over the rapid erosion of human rights, rule of law and the separation of powers in Turkey. The gulf would widen sharply following the failed coup of 15 July this year. A brief glance at the tenor of Erdogan's rhetoric is sufficient to realise that relations between Ankara and Brussels are strained to breaking point and little can be done to mend them in the foreseeable future. In Turkey, the media sustains a shrill and strident din, variously conjuring such themes as the glorious wars waged by Ottoman forebears against European crusaders or airing grievances against the five-decades of humiliating foot dragging and procrastination practised by the “Christian club” on the matter of the EU membership of “Islamic Turkey.” European leaders, meanwhile, are no longer able to conceal their concern and anger at the Turkish leader's determination to press forward with his antidemocratic irredentist project. Last August, Ankara withdrew its ambassador from Austria. In the months since, Erdogan's autocratic and bellicose behaviour has goaded Vienna into an escalatory retaliation. On the same day that the EU Parliament issued its advisory vote to freeze accession talks with Ankara, the Austrian Council unanimously approved a bill calling for an arms embargo against Turkey. More significantly, Germany, which has always been Europe's most supportive country of Erdogan, has been provoked to take a concrete stance against what it calls Turkish blackmail, using Syrian refugees as pawns. Last week, Berlin decided to send a team of experts to Jordan to discuss the possibility of using an airbase there as an alternative to Incirlik Airbase in Anatolia. Erdogan continues to rail in contradictory ways that sometimes seem divorced from reality. One day he vows to snub the EU and turn to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO); the next day he threatens to open the sluices at the Turkish border to unleash a flood of refugees unless the EU accelerates the accession process. Yet, he has often issued such threats without acting on them, and Europeans are well aware of this. This summer he gave Brussels until the end of October to grant Turkish citizens visa-free entry into Schengen states, or else. October sped by and nothing happened. Few days ago he declared that his patience was at an end and that he would give Brussels “one last chance” until 31 December. If visa-free entry is not granted by that time, “we will turn to our people”, he vowed, referring to organising a referendum on whether or not Turkey should continue with accession talks. That ultimatum will most likely join its predecessors. The same applies to the threat to join SCO, especially given that even some of Erdogan's ministers acknowledged that there was no substitute for the EU. As for whether the EU will act on advisory resolution of its parliament, the president of the EU Commission Jean-Claude Juncker tossed the ball into the Turkish court. Turkey needs to ask itself whether or not it wants to meet the necessary conditions in order to become an EU member, he said, adding: “I believe Turkey has not yet asked itself this question and as long as does not, it will not obtain an answer.”
