EUROPE PURSUING A DREAM
BY FERAI TINC (HURRIYET)
In a press conference yesterday after returning from
Slovenia, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said that the
Cyprus issue was a part of Turkey’s European Union
membership process and that the government had a
strategy on the issue. Gul stressed that it would be
beneficial to evaluate the issue before this month’s EU
summit in a meeting in Ankara next Tuesday, with Turkish
Cypriot leaders in attendance, chaired by President
Ahmet Necdet Sezer. Gul further stated that first the
Cyprus issue must be resolved before any recognition of
Greek Cyprus could be considered. /Aksam/
Following its passage by the Justice Commission, the
full Parliament is set today and tomorrow to debate a
crucial Penal Procedural Law (CMUK) bill with an eye to
passing it prior to the Dec. 17 European Union summit.
The government is citing the CMUK bill as a major
improvement for Turkish law and a crucial step in
Ankara’s process of harmonization with EU norms. In
related news, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek yesterday
visited opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)
leader Deniz Baykal to seek his support for the bill.
After the meeting, Baykal told reporters that his party
would cooperate with the government to pass the measure.
/Turkiye/
European Parliament President Josep Borrell and Belgian Foreign
Minister Karel De Gucht yesterday arrived in Ankara to
discuss Turkey’s European Union membership bid in the
runup to the Dec. 17 EU summit, when the Union will
decide whether or not to begin Turkey’s accession talks.
Borrell is expected to meet with President Ahmet Necdet
Sezer, Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc, Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.
For his part, De Gucht is also expected to meet with Gul
to discuss a number of issues, including bilateral
relations, regional and international issues, and this
month’s EU summit. /Cumhuriyet/
Bernard Bot, the foreign minister of European Union Term President the
Netherlands, said yesterday that he sees additional
conditions for Turkey’s EU talks to go forward as
“reflecting Europe’s political realities.” Speaking to
daily Dutch NRC Handelsblad, Bot stated that even if the
Union decides at its summit this month to begin Ankara’s
accession talks, this wouldn’t mean that Turkey will
join EU the anytime soon, adding that prudence should be
the watchword on Ankara’s EU bid. /Milliyet/
During a two-day meeting in Tehran, Iran earlier this week, the
interior ministers of Iraq’s neighbors – Turkey, Iran,
Kuwait, Syria, Jordan and Egypt – agreed to cooperate to
help end the chaos and violence in Iraq. The gathering’s
final declaration underlined the importance of Iraq’s
territorial integrity, political freedom and national
unity. Regarding border security, the ministers vowed to
combat channels of financial support for terrorists,
including the smuggling of weapons and drug.
Representing Turkey at the gathering, Interior Minister
Abdulkadir Aksu told reporters that Turkey was set to
host the ministers’ next meeting. He added that that
during the talks, he had conveyed Ankara’s concern over
deadly attacks on Turkish truck drivers in Iraq and the
continued presence of anti-Turkish terrorist groups on
Iraqi soil. /Turkiye/
Addressing a finance conference yesterday, State Minister for the
Economy Ali Babacan said that the government would
faithfully fulfill its just-unveiled pre-European Union
accession economic program. Touching on Turkey’s EU
aspirations, Babacan stressed that the government was
determined to see its membership bid through to
fruition, adding that the EU’s decision at its Dec. 17
summit would be a political one. Turkey’s recent
positive reform steps were confirmed by the EU’s fall
progress report, he added. Also addressing the
gathering, World Bank Turkey Director Andrew Vorkink
criticized Turkey’s banks as failing to extend
sufficient credit to the private sector. “If Turkey
wants to bring its economy to EU standards, it must
tackle this problem,” he added. /Aksam/
Osman Arslan, director of the 16th Law Department, yesterday was
elected to head the High Court of Appeals. Arslan,
replacing the retiring Eraslan Ozkaya, is expected to
serve for three years at the post. /Hurriyet/
After meeting in Lubeck, Germany, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder
and visiting French President Jacques Chirac said that
they wanted Turkey to be a European Union member. Chirac
told reporters that Ankara’s EU membership would serve
the interests of all sides. Stressing that Ankara’s
implementation of the Copenhagen criteria would be
monitored carefully, Chirac stated that the process of
accession talks would be long and difficult, adding that
a referendum would be held in France after 10-15 years
to decide on Turkey’s full membership. He also remarked
that the talks might be suspended if conditions were not
fulfilled. Schroeder, for his part, said that he and
Chirac shared the same view that the talks would be
aimed at full membership. /Turkiye/
Ari Vatanen, a Finnish racecar driver elected to the European
Parliament from France, yesterday defended his support
for Turkey’s European Union membership bid. Critics from
his party, France’s ruling Union for a Popular Movement
(UMP), will soon “fade away,” he predicted. “Turkey’s EU
membership is needed in the fight against fundamentalism
and terrorism,” added Vatanen. /Hurriyet/
A number of Belgian dailies yesterday warned of a possible “crisis of
confidence” fracturing Turkish-European Union relations.
Asking whether Ankara is preparing for such a prospect,
Belgian daily Le Soir reported that the EU’s messages to
Turkey were confusing, adding that permanently limiting
the movement of Turkish workers would be a first in EU
history. /Star/
Columnist Sami Kohen writes on Turkey’s European Union membership bid
and the Cyprus issue. A summary of his column is as
follows:
“‘There’s no need for concern, because this is a
first draft which will be discussed and modified many
times,’ said one European diplomat on the day when EU
Term President the Netherlands announced its draft
resolution on Turkey’s status.
Dutch officials are now preparing a second draft, as
they had to withdraw the first one after intense
discussions. Negotiations on the new one will probably
also last for days on end.
I don’t expect the new text to differ substantially
from the old one. I think the wording will change but
the content will remain nearly the same. The critical
point is that it must underline once again that the
ultimate goal of Turkey’s membership negotiations will
be full membership. In other words, the new text must
cease implying that alternate options such as
‘privileged partnership’ exist.
Another important issue for Turkey is Cyprus. The
first text included a brief paragraph implying that
Turkey should recognize the Greek Cypriot
administration. Even as Ankara tries to persuade EU
leaders to take this out of the new text, the Greek
Cypriots, dissatisfied with the implicit wording of the
paragraph, are putting pressure on the EU to make a
clearer statement on the issue.
Let’s wait and see what kind of verbal legerdemain EU
diplomats will resort to so as to finesse the
controversial issue. According to EU diplomats, Ankara
should not see such a Cyprus statement as a
precondition.
During the course of our negotiations process,
unavoidably we will have to face the Greek Cypriots.
Inevitably we must establish relations with them. There
are certain formulas for defining just how this will
happen. In other words, the word ‘recognition’ might be
defined in different ways. For example, ‘functional
recognition in the context of the EU’ could be one.
In the meantime, the EU is expected to keep its
promises on the Cyprus issue. Therefore, the
‘recognition crisis’ has handed a trump card to Ankara,
enabling it to put pressure on the EU to fulfill its
commitments regarding the island.”
Columnist Ferai Tinc comments on Turkey and Europe. A summary of her
column is as follows:
“The recent murder of Dutch film director Theo Van
Gogh marked a turning point for Europe. Racism in the
Netherlands is growing everyday, hiding behind the mask
of the ‘integration.’ Everybody is talking about
everything, including Muslims’ difficulties adapting to
Europe and educational problems, but xenophobia is never
openly expressed. Amsterdam official Bulent Okyay said
that 36,000 Turks live in the city. Some 60% of the
population are Dutch citizens, but only 10% of them
‘feel Dutch’ because there is a relationship of host and
guest. What I saw at a recent symposium organized by the
METU Center for European Studies showed that Europe is
in the midst a very critical process. Paul Scheffer of
Amsterdam University said that he considered Turkey’s
European Union membership very important from this point
of view. If Turkey is shut out, this would mean telling
Muslims living in Europe, ‘You can’t become European.’
Scheffer also thinks that there are problems within the
Islamic world, believing that it should accept
responsibility for violence committed in its name as
well as fulfill its duties against discrimination, and
that Turkey can help with this.
When I visited the Netherlands a decade ago, I
visited a Turkish school in Rotterdam. The government
was teaching Turkish children in our language. This was
fine but I asked myself, ‘Why are there only Turkish
children? Where are the Dutch children?’ Those children
grew up very disconnected from each other. They learn,
and their culture is strengthened, but they lack the
status of being Dutch. Amsterdam University’s Jos de
Beus warned, ‘Multiculturalism has collapsed in the
Netherlands. It’s in a panic crisis. The situation is
the same in Germany. To ensure a strong democracy,
subcultures should be weak. The stronger they are, the
weaker democracy is. Can we talk about a European dream
equal to the American one? No, we should establish a new
European dream.’ There’s a difference between Europe’s
words and its experiences. The European dream is being
re-evaluated due to Turkey’s membership aspirations.
Each day more incidents show even more clearly that this
dream can’t be fulfilled without Turkey at the table.”
