The scope of relations between the European Union and Turkey is too complex to be overshadowed by sanctions, if Brussels ends up imposing them, Kostas Papadakis, a European Parliament member from Greece's Communist Party, told Sputnik
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2020) The scope of relations between the European Union and Turkey is too complex to be overshadowed by sanctions, if Brussels ends up imposing them, Kostas Papadakis, a European Parliament member from Greece's Communist Party, told Sputnik.
On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for sanctions against Turkey.
"Any sanctions if they are eventually imposed on Turkey by the EU cannot hide the fact that Turkey is a 'strategic partner' of the EU. In other words, any sanctions cannot reverse the complex economic, political and military relations between them," Papadakis said.
The lawmaker described as "provocative" Turkey's activities in the Eastern Mediterranean, which, he believes, pursue to drive a wedge between the United States, NATO and the European Union.
Tensions between Ankara and Brussels have been brewing for many months, chiefly over Turkey's drilling for gas in areas of the Eastern Mediterranean which Cyprus and Greece consider their exclusive economic zones.
The strife spiked once again last week as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited a fenced-off, disputed town of Varosha in Cyprus that long symbolized the status quo between the island's divided Turkish and Cypriot parts.
