Mr. Mavridis refers to the role of Turkey in the Ukrainian crisis and the issue of the EU's strategic autonomy, in the context of the debate in the EP on the Conclusions of the European Council of 24-25 March 2022, including developments in Ukraine and EU sanctions against Russia.
The MEP points out the paradox that countries in accession status, such as Turkey, are not only not in line with the sanctions, but "have become a haven for Russian oligarchs, an issue on which there is silence".
"The Russian state-owned company Rosatom, which is fully controlled by the Kremlin and is building Turkey's first nuclear power plant at Akkuyu, just a few kilometres from Cyprus, is not included in the proposed sanctions," he adds. Mavridis in his intervention and castigates EU officials who, he says, behave as if they do not know how brutal and oppressive the Erdogan regime is, which continues to receive European funds.
Mavridis goes on to refer to the need for EU strategic autonomy stressing that "the EU's unanimous position on common defence and security and energy autonomy puts us in front of our responsibilities, since the threats are real. However, for common defence and security to work, common rules are needed, at the core of which must be respect for international law, which has been violated for 42 days in Ukraine by Russian troops and for 48 years in Cyprus, an EU territory, by Turkish occupying troops."
Source: CNA
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