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THE TURKISH PRESIDENT ERDOGAN MEETS IN ROME THE POPE AND THE PRESIDENTS MATTARELLA AND GENTILONI. THE PRESIDENT CAPASSO COMMENTS A LONG SERIES OF LOST OCCASIONS, FROM THE VISITOF THE TURKIS PRESIDENTTO FONDAZIONE MEDITERRANEO.

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Rome  ||  | 05 February 2018
Iniziative (EN) - Maison de la Paix (EN)

The president of Turkey Recep Tayyp Erdoğan is visiting Rome for a single day: with his wife, daughter and some ministers.He met Pope Francis, President Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and some entrepreneurs operating in Turkey. Contrasting evaluations between protests, hopes and exceptional security measures. On the carpet the usual problems: human rights, war with the Kurds contrast to the secularity state and a long list. "A long series of missed opportunities - comments the president of the Fondazione Mediterraneo Michele Capasso, who has had numerous meetings with President Erdoğan since 2005 - that could have affected the process of our history. When President Erdoğan came to Naples at the headquarters of our Foundation in September 2005 (accompanied by many ministers and in the presence of the highest representatives of the European institutions) he asked the Foundation for a quick acceptance of Turkey to the European Union.On that occasion we listed a series of priorities and detailed the things to do: starting from human rights, from women, from the respect of different cultures and others, for a list of 20 points contained in our program "Great Mediterranean" that the same Erdoğan, then, appreciate (watch to the interview at “IL MATTINO”). None of those recommendations was then implemented. At the conclusion of that meeting and in others held in the following years until 2015, we warned President Erdoğan to the risk of an authoritarian drift that could overturn the democratic process and Turkey's accession to the EU. The facts of the last few years have proved us right ".