Affirmation of the Re-Rise of Turkey's Troubles - a Failing of EU Membership Requirements Under Erdo

The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, is failing at the requirements to meet European Union(UN) membership based upon its eradication of dissent in that country, a European Commission report will declare on Wednesday.

Reported by Reuters earlier today citing the German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, the European Commission report will confirm problems with press freedoms and the questionable independence of the judiciary in Turkey, as posing impediments to Turkey's membership into the behemoth trade block - the EU.

Turkey seeks membership into the EU, which mandates a set of benchmarks be met with respect to human rights, the rule of law and other criteria as requisite to entry into the group. However, Turkey, which seemed well on the way to gaining favor for EU membership, especially after it forged an immigrant deal with the EU earlier this year, has been faltering ever since an attempted coup against Erdogan in July. 

Wednesday's report on Turkey's EU membership will describe "a significant relapse" in press freedoms and that legal decisions over national security and the fight against terrorism were applied "selectively and randomly" in Turkey. The report will also raise significant concerns about the many Turkish journalists who have been arrested and the number of media outlets that have been shuttered since the July coup attempt, Reuters reported.

More than 110,000 judges, teachers and civil servants have been suspended, detained or fired by Erdogan authorities since July. Moreover, some 170 newspapers, magazines, television stations and news agencies have been closed since July leaving over 2,500 journalists unemployed.

The European Commission report will confirm a relapse in the independence of the Turkish judiciary noting that one-fifth of judges and prosecutors had been dismissed since July. The report will raise "very serious questions" about the Erdogan government's collective actions against people suspected of ties to United States(US) cleric Fethullah Gulen. Erdogan has blamed Gulen for the attempted coup in Turkey. Gulen has denied any connection.

Whether or not  NATO's strategic partner, Turkey, is still a democracy, remains debatable, yet the reality of the Turkish condition affirms Erdogan created problems for the republic that could transcend all layers of Turkish society yielding difficulties for many Turks.