THE NETHERLANDS’ DRAFT ON TURKEY’S
EU BID
BY SAMI KOHEN (MILLIYET)
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday
received visiting Belgian Parliament Speaker Herman De
Croo and an accompanying delegation. During their
meeting, Erdogan thanked De Croo for Belgium’s support
for Turkey’s European Union membership bid. Erdogan said
that Ankara had implemented the Copenhagen criteria and
expected a date to begin its EU talks soon at the Dec.
17 Union summit. Discussing his contacts in the country,
Croo said that from everything he had seen all sectors
of Turkish society support the government’s EU
aspirations. He also expressed his hope that Ankara
would get a date to begin talks at this month’s summit.
Commenting on the Cyprus issue, Erdogan said that he
couldn’t understand how Greek Cyprus had become an EU
member this May without first resolving the island’s
“border dispute.” /Aksam/
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, who is currently at The Hague, yesterday
attended a joint meeting of the Turkish-European Union
Mixed Consultation Committee. Addressing the gathering,
Gul warned that if the Union doesn’t decide at this
month’s EU summit to begin Ankara’s accession talks,
then this could create a crisis of confidence, adding
that both sides should do their best to prevent this. In
related news, Gul is due to travel to Ljubljana,
Slovenia today to meet with his Slovenian counterpart
Ivo Vajgl to discuss a number of issues, including
bilateral relations and Turkey’s EU membership bid. He
is also expected to meet with Slovenian President Janez
Drnovsek and Prime Minister Anton Rop to seek support
for Turkey’s EU talks. Slovenia has been an EU member
since May. /Cumhuriyet/
Main opposition Democratic People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal
yesterday charged that the government was “keeping
silent” in the face of important developments concerning
Turkey’s European Union membership bid. Stressing that
this attitude would lead nowhere, Baykal warned that the
EU is pressing Turkey to both recognize Greek Cyprus and
accept a “special partnership” arrangement rather than
full membership. Baykal further called for the EU bid to
be discussed by Parliament. /Hurriyet/
The Supreme Military Council (YAS) chaired by Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan met yesterday. During the gathering, in
addition to regional issues including Iraq, the fight
against terrorism and the threat of fundamentalist
groups working to undermine the secular republic were
also discussed. Furthermore, eight military personnel
were dismissed for disciplinary violations. In the
evening, the members of the YAS attended a banquet
hosted by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. /Cumhuriyet/
Outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell is due next Monday to begin
a tour of several European countries, including Belgium,
the Netherlands and Bulgaria, as well as Morocco. During
his visits, Powell is due to seek support for Ankara’s
European Union accession talks before the Dec. 17 EU
summit, and he is expected to urge European officials to
begin Ankara’s talks without any conditions. Powell’s
possible farewell visit to Europe as secretary of state
is being seen as part of Washington’s final push to
encourage the EU to give Turkey a date to begin its
talks. In related news, State Department Spokesman
Richard Boucher reiterated on Monday that Ankara should
be given a date to begin its talks, saying, “We
certainly believe that Turkey needs to be put on a path
to membership.” /Star/
Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht said yesterday that his
government supported beginning Ankara’s accession talks
next year, adding that the talks’ only goal should be
full EU membership. Addressing a conference on Turkey’s
EU bid, De Gucht stressed that “privileged partnership”
proposals for Turkey were unacceptable. In related news,
the Slovakian Parliament yesterday said that it supports
Ankara beginning its EU accession talks, and the Polish
government declared that the Union should begin Ankara’s
talks in the first half of next year. /Turkiye/
In the runup to this month’s key European Union summit, with the fate
of Ankara’s EU talks hanging in the balance, Ankara is
getting ready to receive a host of top-level European
visitors. Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopez
is due to arrive in Ankara today for a three-day
official visit. He is expected to meet with President
Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan to discuss Turkey’s EU bid. European Parliament
President Josep Borrell is also expected to pay a
four-day official visit to Turkey starting tomorrow.
During his stay, Borrell will be accompanied by Joost
Lagendijk, the co-chair of the Turkish-EU Joint
Parliamentary Commission. In addition, Belgian Foreign
Minister Karel De Gucht is expected to arrive in Ankara
tomorrow for a two-day official visit. During his stay,
De Gucht will meet with Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.
Finally, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moritanos
is due to visit Ankara on Dec. 10-11 to discuss its EU
bid. /Turkiye/
A European Parliament committee yesterday recommended that the EU open
membership talks with Turkey “without undue delay.” An
amended report approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee
of the European Union’s assembly said that the Dec. 17
EU summit should “open the negotiations with Turkey
without undue delay” if Ankara meets the Union’s
conditions. “The [report’s] compromise got the balance
between constructive and critical in the right way,”
said Camiel Eurlings, the Dutch Christian Democrat who
drafted the document. In an amendment, the committee
said that opening negotiations would “presuppose
recognition by Turkey” of Greek Cyprus. /Sabah/
Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel yesterday said that the European
Union at its summit later this month must make clear to
Turkey that any negotiations may result in an
arrangement other than full membership. “The decision
about Turkey should say that the accession talks should
be open-ended and that there could be many alternatives
to EU membership,” added Schuessel. /Star/
Meeting in Ankara yesterday, Turkish, Iraqi and US officials gathered
to discuss the security of Turkish truck drivers working
in Iraq. The officials reportedly agreed to take
additional measures to boost security, including the
expected support of coalition forces. In related news,
at a meeting in Iran, Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu
stated that since the Iraq war, 66 Turkish citizens had
been killed in the country and 16 taken hostage, while
16 others remain missing. /Turkiye/
As part of Ankara’s efforts to harmonize with European Union norms, a
revised Criminal Procedural Law (CMUK) was approved
yesterday by Parliament’s Justice Commission. The bill
is expected to be debated by the full Parliament this
weekend. /Hurriyet/
Playing host to some 200 Turkish and foreign reporters, the national
Security Council (NSC) General Secretariat yesterday
held its first-ever press conference in its 71-year-old
history. Yigit Alpagon, the NSC’s first civilian
secretary-general, gave a detailed briefing on the
institution. Addressing the journalists, Alpagon said
that 294 people worked at the NSC General Secretariat,
including 15 military officers. In line with Ankara’s
latest efforts to harmonize with the European Union,
over the last few years the NSC has been transformed
into a more advisory body. Alpagon stated that despite
certain structural changes, there had been no change in
the NSC’s function. “We will continue to evaluate
internal and external threats to the country’s
security,” said the secretary-general. /Turkiye/
Columnist Ozdemir Ince comments on Muslim structures in Europe and the
relationship between Islam and Christianity. A summary
of his column is as follows:
“Today I’d like to share with you an interesting
e-mail I got from one of my readers in the Netherlands:
‘Today there are 450 mosques in the Netherlands, plus
250 in Sweden and 150 in Denmark. The first mosque here
was built in 1991 in Zaandam. The city donated 800,000
guilders (363,000 euros) for its construction. The Dutch
people built two minarets in the district, each costing
2 million guilders. They raised millions of euros for
their construction. However, now the country is ruing
this support. The Netherlands, Belgium and France are
all confused about Islam. In France, if one of the
witnesses to a wedding is wearing a headscarf, then both
the witness and the wedding itself are considered
invalid. These countries are cracking down on their
Muslim communities. Once the Netherlands was a country
whose police shrunk from checking citizens’ identity
cards, but now everybody is required to carry valid ID.’
For students of European history, it’s very
surprising to see the Europeans’ ignorance and
inexperience in dealing with Islam. Over the centuries,
most European countries co-existed with Muslim
communities as their colonizers. Thus, this relationship
didn’t really transcend that of master and slave.
Europeans failed to learn about Islamic structures and
traditions. In the Netherlands, mosques affiliated with
Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate can be controlled
and kept in check. But, those connected with various
religious orders obey nothing and nobody besides their
own authority. They are like feudal structures.
But what must Europe do? First, the old continent
should abandon the notion that there is a structural
similarity between Christianity and Islam. In
Christianity, the salaries of religious officials are
often paid by the church, but if we did the same in
Islam, in other words, if the various religious orders
paid salaries, all hell would break loose. Therefore,
despite its shortcomings, the best method for managing
Islamic structures is to establish a Religious Affairs
Directorate, as Turkey did. All the mosques of Europe,
large and small, must be gathered under the helm of one
central authority. This is the only way to effectively
manage relations between the two faiths.
I don’t mean to say that I care much for our
Religious Affairs Directorate, since in my view it
clearly has some deficiencies. However, since we mustn’t
leave our mosques in the hands of religious communities
and orders, such a directorate is the best way to
protect them.”
Columnist Sami Kohen comments on a draft statement on Turkey’s EU bid
by EU Term President the Netherlands. A summary of his
column is as follows:
“The draft statement leaked this week says things
which it shouldn’t have but fails to say things which it
should have. Most importantly, the statement doesn’t
include a date. In other words, it doesn’t indicate just
when the EU will start membership talks with Turkey. The
draft, prepared for the Dec. 17 EU summit, consists of
two sections, one directly on Turkey and the other
addressing the general framework of talks. The last
article of five paragraphs about Turkey is blank, but it
was supposed to indicate a timetable for talks. Of
course this blank will be filled before Dec. 17, but
how? France and Austria in particular are leaning
towards adding expressions of ‘open-ended negotiations,’
‘privileged partnership’ and ‘strengthened cooperation.’
It seems that the chairmanship preferred to leave the
task of filling in there blanks to the relevant
governments and leaders. In other words, this important
issue is open to discussion and bargaining. Maybe the
final decision will be made on the last day and last
minute of the summit. The EU Commission’s report didn’t
refer to the Cyprus issue, but this statement includes
it. The third paragraph says: ‘The European Council
would be glad if Turkey signs the additional protocol on
the Ankara Treaty, by taking the participation of new
members into consideration.’ Translation: Turkey should
recognize the Greek Cypriot administration. This means
that the intensive lobbying of Greek Cyprus and Athens
yielded results.
When should this recognition take place? Should this
happen before Dec. 17, or before our talks start, or
during the talks themselves? Officials and analysts say
that no one expects such a thing before the summit.
Thus, they guess that this expression in the third
paragraph will change. In addition, two issues shouldn’t
be neglected. Firstly, this document is only a draft, it
will be discussed in many meetings and probably certain
parts will change. Secondly, the draft should be
evaluated as a whole. For example, the first two
paragraphs of the chapter on Turkey adopt the commission
report’s advice. It includes such issues as free
movement and delaying membership talks in the general
principle framework chapter. Certain issues in the draft
declaration might sound good. There’s no need to panic
or feel hopeless. We’ve got a long, difficult road ahead
of us. We should face it squarely.”
