Turkey is “completely isolated” on the international stage and must abandon aggressive rhetoric if it wants to develop relations with the European Union, European Parliament rapporteur for Turkey Nacho Sanchez Amor said on Wednesday in Istanbul, AFP reports.

“Avoiding aggressive and threatening tone is easy, immediate and free. (…) You are completely isolated. Your only true friend is Azerbaijan,” Sanchez Amor said at a press conference in Istanbul.

“We expect a new tone and signs of resumption of cooperation from Turkey,” he added.

Negotiations between the European Union and Turkey, a candidate country for EU membership since 1999, have been frozen since 2018.

The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, and the European Commissioner responsible for the EU’s neighboring countries, Oliver Varhely, proposed last week to start over and improve dialogue and cooperation with Ankara.

The EU also wants to discuss with Turkey the best way to prevent Russia from evading Western sanctions, two European officials said.

In its latest report on the state of negotiations with candidate countries, published in November, the European Commission noted that “Turkey’s unilateral foreign policy remains at odds with EU priorities.”

Foreign policy for domestic promotion

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Greece this week to try to restore ties between the two neighboring countries, whose relations have been marked by numerous strains in recent years.

The Turkish head of state repeatedly criticized the West during his election campaign in May and used a visit to Germany last month to denounce Berlin’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas.

A staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, the Turkish president repeated his criticism of the West on Wednesday.

“Without the support of Israel from all Western countries, especially the United States, we would not have faced such a situation in our region,” he said.

“I know that many of Turkey’s foreign policy decisions are made with a view to how they will be perceived by domestic public opinion,” said Sánchez Amor.

“Despite the current situation, the EU is ready to participate in other areas to move relations forward,” he added.

Sánchez Amor also praised Ankara for allowing him to visit philanthropist Osman Kavala, whose detention in 2017 severed ties between Turkey and the West.

“The Turkish government’s decision to allow this visit (to Kavala) is an important step,” Sanchez Amor said in a statement after leaving Turkey.

“I hope that this discovery is a sign that a new period is beginning in EU-Turkey relations,” he added.

Representatives of the Council of Europe have repeatedly called on Turkey to immediately release the Turkish philanthropist after the decision that Ankara violated the European Convention on Human Rights.

Jailed for six years, the 66-year-old Paris-born businessman, civil society activist and arts and culture patron is accused of trying to overthrow the government by funding anti-government demonstrations in 2013.

In September, Turkish courts upheld his sentence of “aggravated life imprisonment” for his alleged role in the 2013 Gezi protests in Istanbul.

This means he cannot be released early and will remain in solitary confinement.