Erdoğan, not Trump, is Europe's new best friend on security

EU Confidential

POLITICO

Politics, News Commentary, News

4.4 • 175 Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ekrem İmamoğlu, Istanbul’s mayor and the main political rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been arrested. So what is Europe doing about it? Staying pretty quiet, it seems. Mass protests are breaking out across Turkey but Brussels is keeping its counsel. In this episode Sarah Wheaton speaks with Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former journalist in Turkey, about what’s really driving Erdoğan’s shift toward authoritarianism and how Europe is responding — especially with a view to Turkey’s growing importance for European security. But Europe’s focus isn’t all on defense. We also examine some of the EU’s overlooked policy changes, from food and textile waste to agriculture and medicine shortages. Sarah is joined by Politico’s experts on sustainability, agriculture and health — Marianne Gros, Bartosz Brzeziński and Rory O’Neill — for an insightful dive into what’s going on behind the scenes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:46.5	What we can say is the arrest of the mayor, Imamoglu, and the protesters give rise to the
0:51.7	questions regarding Turkey's adherence to its long-established
0:55.0	democratic tradition. As a council of Europe member and an EU candidate, Turkey must uphold democratic
1:02.5	values. That was the response. Hardly what we'd call full-throated from a European
1:10.4	Commission spokesperson earlier this week
1:12.4	when asked to comment on Turkish President Rysip Tayyip Erdogan's brutal imprisonment of his top political rival.
1:19.5	The rights of elected officials as well as the right of peaceful demonstrations need to be fully respected.
1:25.9	As protesters flooded the streets of Istanbul and faced arrest along with other opposition
1:32.3	politicians and the journalists covering them, the Commission said there were no plans to dial
1:37.3	down its new security collaboration with Ankara.
1:40.3	Indeed, Turkey has never been able to get its Human Rights Act together enough to join the EU.
1:47.0	But in the Trump era, that doesn't seem to matter anymore.
1:56.0	Turkey's not in the block, but it is in the club.
	...

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