Outrage After Von Der Leyen Groups Turkey Into Malign Axis With Russia, China

Turkey’s government as well as some members of the European Parliament on Wednesday criticized recent remarks by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggesting Europe should not fall under the influence of Russia, Turkey, or China - calling the comments misleading and divisive.

Von der Leyen on Monday had casually grouped NATO member Turkey with China and Russia as malign influences on the continent, which contradicts the fact that the EU has relied on Turkey to play a key diplomatic role in the Ukraine war, as well as to absorb war refugees from the Middle East.

She had in the remarks declared that the EU “must succeed in completing the European continent so that it is not influenced by Russia, Turkey or China.”

She then urged Europe to “think bigger and more geopolitically” when it comes to the continent getting away from cheap Russian energy and low-cast Chinese labor. She argued for greater European independence, also amid tensions with the Trump administration.

Lawmakers from the Left Group in the European Parliament, including Belgian members Rudi Kennes and Marc Botenga, took Turkey’s side and slammed the remarks as “both inaccurate and very strange,” emphasizing that Turkey is a NATO ally and maintains multifaceted relations with the European Union.

“Turkey is still officially a candidate country for EU membership,” the officials noted. “These kinds of statements serve to split the world into ‘us’ and ‘others,’ as if there were some kind of purity test, and as if there were an intention to control the rest of the continent,” Botenga said.

Botenga further warned that framing international relations as “friends versus enemies” poses significant risks for global stability. One source also underscored why Brussels was quick to try and do damage control in an EU presser:

This rapid clarification underscores Brussels’ awareness of the sensitivity. Turkey remains a vital partner on multiple fronts: migration management, Black Sea security, energy transit, and regional stability. Yet the episode reveals an underlying unease in EU circles about Turkey’s independent foreign policy, especially at a time when some voices within Ankara are openly exploring alternatives to traditional Western alignments.

There was indeed some fast backtracking on the word choice and rhetoric…

The EU attempts to backtrack from Von der Leyen’s statement which has described Turkish influence as adversarial on par with China and Russia pic.twitter.com/q54ID5cIkA

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) April 21, 2026

Still, the elephant in the room is that Turkey is very much an geopolitical Eurasian outlier – on the hand possessing the second largest army in NATO, and on the other often doing things contrary to NATO and EU interests, such as cozying up to Moscow on certain key issues.