EU has little option but to deal with strengthened Erdogan

The EU, desperate for help to solve the migrant crisis, has little option but to deal with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his own terms after a stunning election victory Sunday, analysts say.

They said Erdogan can now set the agenda for a European Union which dislikes doing business with a man who wants to join the bloc but also flouts its rules on human rights and press freedoms.

"The EU will be forced to swallow its pride and pander to the hubristic ego of President Erdogan," Natalie Martin, an expert on Turkish politics at Nottingham Trent University in Britain, reportedly said.

"In so doing, it will be dealing with a government which may be democratic but is certainly not liberal and which will demand a high price for its cooperation."

Turkey is a longstanding candidate country for European Union membership but talks have stalled, largely on concerns over its human rights record which critics say went from bad to worse during the election campaign.

Yet in recent months Brussels has been wooing its Muslim-majority neighbour in the hope it will help resolve the Syrian war and stem the flow of hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants fleeing the conflict.

The EU issued a surprisingly terse statement on Monday, saying that it looked forward to working with the new Turkish government -- but stressing that it awaited an OSCE observer report on the vote.

Brussels notably avoided directly congratulating Erdogan, his Justice and Development Party (AKP) which won 316 seats in the 550-member parliament, or Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Caption: Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Photo Credit: Reuters

The OSCE said Monday that the conduct of the ballot was hindered by violence including a huge suicide bombing at a peace rally, and a crackdown on the media.

Critics and the opposition said Erdogan manipulated the press crackdown and a bloody new campaign against Kurdish rebels to convince voters frightened by the upsurge of violence.