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Turkey welcomed EU accession report issued by the European Union (EU), but lashed out at the stalled negotiations due to political blockage by some EU member states.
The report prepared by the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, hailed recent reforms adopted by Turkey but criticized the government crackdown on May-June protests over environmental woes in the Gezi Park in Taksim Square in the coastal city of Istanbul.
Turkey said it appreciated the acknowledgement by the 28-member bloc of its accomplishments and urged fast-track talks that have been stalled for almost three years with no negotiating chapter opened by the EU.
The lack of progress in Turkey-EU talks has deeply frustrated Ankara and Turkish public who are growing weary of what they see as biased treatment towards Turkey. Turkey is the only candidate country that has no visa waiver deal with the EU.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc underlined that public support for EU membership in Turkey has declined from 70 percent a few years ago to 20 percent now.
"Of course, this is a serious problem and it is a result that proves that the parties need to go through a process of self- criticism," said analyst Orhan Miroglu, stressing that the 20 percent public support is significant.
"These days Turkey's membership talks exist in name only. No new chapter has been opened since the Spanish presidency of 2010," Amanda Paul, analyst at the European Policy Center (EPC) in Brussels said.
"The prospect of Turkey making it into the club is more distant today than it was 50 years ago," she stressed, adding that neither side wants to withdraw from negotiations officially at this stage.
Over the weekend, Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis and chief negotiator dismissed the report's criticism of how the government handled the protests, saying that Turkey is now closer than ever to EU standards in terms of democracy, human rights and economic developments.
He stated that the European Commission's support for fresh talks on a new policy area proved Turkey was making progress in the reform process.
EU was about to open the talks on regional policy in June but German-led opposition bloc postponed the opening in response to the Turkish authorities' handling of the demonstrations.
EU governments will consider the commission's report on Tuesday during which they could decide to launch the new round of talks with Turkey in early November.
Turkey may be in the long haul to become a member of the EU, warned Dogu Ergil, an academic at Istanbul-based Fatih University.
The EU started negotiations with Turkey in 2005 but accession talks have made relatively little progress.
Despite the lackluster performance on the talks, Turkish Foreign Ministry said over the weekend that its membership with the EU is a "strategic choice."
Ekrem Dumanli, the chief editor at Turkey's mass daily Zaman said on Monday that despite a bias among some members of the EU towards Turkey, Turkey needs to push harder for membership talks.
"If it was not the EU process, Turkey could not have accomplished democratic achievements on its own domestic dynamics, " he said.
"Despite ebbs and flows on Turkey-EU ties recently, the progress report was a balanced one," Dumanli added.
