In recent months we have witnessed a dangerous escalation in the Eastern Mediterranean due to Turkish surveys of the gas resources also claimed by Cyprus, Greece, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, as well as incidents between French and Turkish frigates. These events have added more strain in the area following the conversion of the historical museums of Hagia Sophia and Chora in Istanbul into a mosque, the recent arrest of a dozen prominent HDP members for protests in 2014; the death of four people in hunger strike and the gross violations of human rights that do not stop refugees and migrants.

Faced with this critical situation that is going to be discussed at the European Council on October 1 and 2, 2020, Podemos demands a radical reorientation of the EU’s neighborhood policies with Turkey as the first step to change the neighborhood policies with the Mediterranean that this year marks 25 years, proving that the Barcelona Process has failed.

We ask the European Union to:

  • A coordinated action between the foreign policies of the Member States and the European Commission through its High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy to resume the talks of the German presidency. Faced with Turkey’s prospecting in the waters of Cyprus and Greece, the EU must defend its sovereignty and take the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as the basis of the talks. Faced with tensions and the risk of escalation, we need diplomatic action and dialogue.
  • This coordinated action must also extend to European policies with Libya, whose spiral of destruction has been exploited as one more aspect of the prospecting conflict. We condemn the expansionism of the Erdogan government by signing a memorandum of understanding with the Libyan government that violates the international law of the sea as well as the maritime sovereignty of Cyprus and Greece. But we do not forget the responsibilities of some Member States in the implosion of Libya in 2011 or in keeping the conflict in an international civil war in which there are European countries on different sides. We demand compliance with the principles of human rights, democracy and development contained in the EU’s foreign doctrines, which in practice are violated by the practices of its Member States.
  • A firm commitment to negotiations that end the conflict in Cyprus based on a bi-national and bi-communal federation, according to the United Nations resolutions, which would allow respecting the human rights of all people and ending militarization on the island.
  • A formal protest against the decision to end decades of religious tolerance both within Turkey and in its relationship with European countries by converting the museums of significant cultural importance of Hagia Sophia and the Church of Chora into mosques.
  • Demand that the Government of Turkey respect human rights after the arrest of ten HDP leaders for events that occurred in 2014 and the death of four people on hunger strike. Specifically, the Ankara Prosecutor’s Office has decided to indict the mayor of Kars, Ayhan Bilgen; former parliamentarians Ayla Akat Ata, Emine Ayna, Nazmi Gur, Sirri Sureyya Onder, Altan Tan and Beyza Ustun; former HDP spokesperson Gunay Kubilay, member of the Alp Altinors party executive committee and member of the Supreme Council of Radio and Television Ali Urkut, party member. In addition, four people have died from hunger strikes, the last last one being the lawyer Ebru Timktik last August, which we strongly condemn. It should be remembered that in recent months the Government of Turkey has de facto annulled the electoral results of many Kurdish cities by revoking their democratically elected mayors and imposing civilian governors: it has revoked the statutes of deputies of people elected by the HDP and CHP parties; and has continued with very serious human rights violations to the thousands of people prosecuted in Turkey (activists, journalists, advocacy, education …) among which is the imprisonment of more than four years without a final sentence yet of the former co-presidents of the HDP, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yüksedag.
  • A new migration policy aimed at ending the deaths of people in the Mediterranean and respecting the human rights of migrants and refugees by establishing safe routes, changes to the Dublin Convention, relocations and support to countries with external borders of the EU as well as support and rescue missions for people at risk of death. We cannot tolerate that humanitarian crises are addressed with acts of violence in refugee camps, borders, or the policy of externalizing borders that underpins the European agreement with Turkey, which also gives it an intolerable pressure tool.
  • The EU and its Member States cannot validate violations of international law in the negotiation with economic resources from the occupied Palestinian territories involved in the first agreement between countries of the gas exchange. The EU must move from statements to deeds and promote actions to end Israel’s continuing policy of annexation, which has not ceased despite the latest statements by Benjamin Netanyahu.
  • A joint human security through a decisive and firm commitment to an urgent ecological transition in the face of the challenges of the climate emergency, by measures in favor of women, who suffer with particular intensity from conflicts in Mediterranean countries, by economic development more egalitarian between one shore and the other of the Mediterranean and through dialogue and culture of peace.


Thursday the 1st of October, 2020