AK Party Spokesperson Çelik: EU Cannot Act As Mediator On Cyprus Because It Is Not Neutral

Speaking at the AK Party headquarters following a Central Executive Board (MYK) meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Çelik answered questions from journalists on current political developments.

Responding to a question on whether the assumption of the EU Council Presidency by the Greek Cypriot Administration would affect Türkiye, Çelik said that Ankara has long warned that the EU’s captivity to Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration has confined it to a narrow political space and stripped it of its ability to act as a global power.

He said that current debates surrounding Greenland, the Russia–Ukraine war, security guarantees and NATO have all demonstrated the validity of Türkiye’s long-standing argument that the EU cannot become a global power under its current approach. Çelik argued that this lack of vision began with the suspension of the EU’s enlargement perspective towards Türkiye, but even earlier with the presentation of the marginal positions of Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration as official EU policy.

Referring to statements made during the handover of the EU presidency on 7 January, Çelik criticised the Greek Cypriot Administration for using terms such as “occupation”, “annexation” and later “division” in reference to the TRNC, describing these expressions as illegitimate. He said that the real annexation and occupation occurred in 1963, when the Greek Cypriot side dismantled the constitutional order and usurped the rights of Turkish Cypriots.

Emphasising that the EU cannot act as a mediator on Cyprus, Çelik said this was because it is not neutral, a fact once again demonstrated by the rhetoric used by the Greek Cypriot Administration during the presidency handover. He added that the issue of Türkiye’s EU membership has now moved beyond being a matter concerning the Greek Cypriot Administration, Germany or France alone.

Çelik stated that Türkiye’s EU membership was once framed as a question of whether the EU could become a global power, but has now evolved into a far more fundamental issue.

“For the first time, I am stating this clearly,” Çelik said. “The approach to Türkiye’s membership has now become a question of whether the European Union can continue to exist as a viable union. With this mindset, it will be very difficult for it to sustain itself.”

He pointed to what he described as the EU’s fragmented stance on security issues, its disarray over Greenland, and what he called incorrect positions on NATO, the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. These, he said, have produced an entity that may possess economic power but lacks political and security strength.