After a series of meetings between the EU and Turkish officials concerning a revival for Turkey’s EU accession process, the Turkish government has introduced a new “Human Rights Action Plan” on March 2, 2021. The Action Plan is projected to be implemented over a two-year period to strengthen the rule of law, democracy and human rights which have all weakened massively over the past several years.
Before this positive step was taken by Turkish government, several years of crisis occurred in EU-Turkey relations and the accession process. In fact, the mentioned crisis resulted mainly from various foreign and domestic policies pursued by the Turkish government. However, Turkey’s actions beyond its borders became the primary reasons for the EU to fall out with Turkey.
Apart from foreign policy issues, the accession process was weakened due to severe domestic policies pursued by the Erdogan administration undermining human rights and the rule of law. In other words, Turkey’s architecture of the rule of law and democracy have deteriorated gradually. In this context several core developments contributed to the decay of Turkish democracy and Ankara’s binding commitments for human rights and the rule of law: (1) The Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) failure in the June 2015 election, (2) the failure of the Kurdish Peace Process and re-escalation of conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), (3) the transition from the parliamentary to the presidential system, which undermined the Turkey’s National Assembly’s role, and (4) the 2016 coup d’état attempt were among these core developments. Besides, the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers principles have been undermined with judges and prosecutors appointed under intense political pressure.
