Freezing Turkey-EU talks will benefit no one

The European Parliament will vote on a resolution on Thursday that suggests temporarily freezing Turkey's accession talks in the light of an increase in the violations of human rights and the deterioration in the use of fundamental freedoms in the aftermath of July 15 coup attempt. The EP's Turkey rapporteur, Kati Piri, clearly stated the mood of European lawmakers in a comprehensive interview with daily Hürriyet's Cansu Çamlıbel on Nov. 21.  

"Week after week things have been going in a worse direction... Turkey is declining in all of the rule of law indexes and freedom of media indexes … Until we see a reversal of this decline it is not credible to talk about opening new chapters or taking new initiatives," Piri said, calling for cutting only accession talks and not the whole dialogue. 

It's pretty sure that the parliament will vote in favor of freezing talks but it requires the EU council's unanimous decision before going into effect. It's therefore not going to be easy for the parliament to convince all governments to support their point. 

However, the lawmakers' vote will sure have serious consequences. It will constitute a first in enlargement history in which the parliament will call on the EU to suspend talks with a candidate country, demonstrating the poor prospect of a potential Turkish membership in the union for the foreseeable future. 

Second, it will also lay bare the real intention of political parties across Europe and how they differ with their respective governments when it comes to giving a decision on Turkey's continued accession process. This should be seen as a very significant move when considering that prominent European countries will go to elections in 2017 when populist political movements will likely...