Deutsche Welle, Germany
Oct 20 2004

European Greens Support Turkish EU Bid

The Greens’ meeting in Istanbul unsurprisingly focuses on Turkey

During a three-day parliamentary group meeting in Istanbul, Europe’s
Greens have come out in support for Turkey’s EU bid and criticized
proposed national referendums on its membership.

Europe’s Greens, once Turkey’s most vocal critics and now the
staunchest supporters of its EU membership, began a three-day
parliamentary group meeting in Istanbul on Tuesday by airing strong
criticism against any plans to hold national referendums on whether
Ankara should join the bloc.

“We are against holding referendums in one country about another
country,” Greens group president Daniel Cohn-Bendit said. “There are
seven million Turks living in Europe, so the real question in the
referendum will be, ‘Do you like Turks — do you like Muslims?'”

He singled out President Jacques Chirac, criticizing his proposal to
amend the French constitution to allow referendums on future EU
members as “foolish” and “ridiculous.”

“How can a democratic president, even Chirac, say what will happen in
10 years’ time?” Cohn-Bendit asked at a press conference at the
opening of the meeting. “Are they going to have referendums on the
memberships of Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia? The French will go crazy,”
he said. “This is ridiculous. Don’t waste our time with what will
happen in 10 years.”

Cohn-Bendit was flanked at the press conference by co-chair Monica
Frassoni of Italy, Dutchman Joost Logendijk and Germany’s Cem
Özdemir, both of the EU-Turkey joint parliamentary committee.

Special negotiations must be accepted

Cohn-Bendit urged Turkey to accept the fact that it is different from
other candidate countries and that a special negotiating process is
needed to allow it into the EU. A generally favorable European
Commission report on Oct. 6 advises EU leaders to agree at a Dec. 17
summit in Brussels to launch membership talks with Turkey.

“When you say, ‘We want equal treatment,’ you do not mean it,”
Cohn-Bendit said. “Turkey is not Malta, it is not Romania, it is not
Bulgaria. It is a big country, it is a proud country, and its entry
into the EU will be an important event.”

“Critical friends”

He said the Greens had arrived in Turkey as “critical friends” in
hopes that many issues that remain to be ironed out — the situation
of the Kurds and other minorities, women’s rights, the Armenian
massacres — could be “openly discussed among friends.”

“We must have uncomfortable discussions on, for example, Cyprus and
the role of the army,” Frassoni said, adding: “The process of
building a European democracy is not finished.”

The Greens support Turkey’s EU membership, the Italian MEP said, but
so does Italy’s conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi — “his
reasons are not the same as ours,” she added.

“What is the Greens’ message to Turkey,” asked Özdemir, who is of
Turkish origin. “The message is that we are here and not somewhere
else. If Turkey is today at another point than where it was several
years ago, it is also because of civil society, not only because of
politicians,” he said.

Issues on contention

Another message from the Greens to Turkey’s politicians is “don’t
panic,” Logendijk said. He added the Commission report contained
elements Turkey and the Greens both disagree with, such as the
open-ended nature of the talks and mention of permanent derogations
concerning this country, such as barring its citizens from free
circulation in Europe.

“But,” he said, “don’t lose your focus; don’t lose sight of the main
point: (membership) negotiations should begin next year.”

The meeting of the joint Greens/European Free Alliance group next
goes into a series of panel conferences covering aspects of Turkey-EU
ties. Panelists include German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer his
Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gül, Kurdish activist Leyla Zana and
Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk.