Turkish Press, Turkey
Milliyet
Dec 21 2004

Hope It Goes Smoothly
byegm: 12/21/2004
BY SAMI KOHEN

MILLIYET – Now we should consider these issues: How can we benefit
from the decision made at last week’s EU summit? How can we overcome
hurdles during the process of our membership talks? Turkey faced
quite a few difficulties before last week’s summit. It wasn’t easy
for us to implement so many reforms in such a short period of time.
However, we’ll see even greater difficulties in the months and years
to come. The government, Parliament and bureaucracy have especially
suffered from having to enact harmonization laws so quickly. From
now on, such difficulties and problems will shift more onto society
and even individuals. In other words, these changes will influence
and sometimes hurt the Turkish people. Are we ready for this? Most
importantly, do we know exactly what awaits us? Now let’s consider the
decisions made last week and start to accommodate ourselves to them.

We can summarize the difficulties Turkey will face as follows:

* Oct. 3 was set as the date to start membership talks, but it’s
uncertain if this will happen due to the Cyprus issue. If a consensus
can be reached on recognizing Greek Cypriots, the talks might start.
But this won’t be easy. The outcome of the negotiations process
isn’t certain either. If such countries as France and Austria hold
referendums on our membership, there is the risk of rejection. The
majority of the public in many countries still oppose our membership.
We have a lot of time – 10 years until such referendums – but we have
to build public support and turn the atmosphere into one favoring us.

* After the talks start, Turkey will work hard to harmonize with the
EU acquis communautaire in various areas. This will cause a great
transformation which directly concerns society and people and will be
felt in daily life. However, this transformation will force various
sectors of society to make concessions.

* During the negotiations process, many issues from Cyprus to the
Armenian and Kurdish issues will be in the spotlight. This will disturb
Turkey and Ankara, and the Turkish public should be ready for this.

Obviously, the most urgent issue is the problem of recognizing
Cyprus. Turkey thinks that recognition is possible only after
the island’s problems are solved. Ankara is preparing to take the
initiative on this. It’s expected that the UN will get involved in
the issue, and the EU will force Greek Cypriots to sit at the table
again. Could the 40-year-old Cyprus issue be solved in nine months?
It’s worth it to try again, but of course there’s no guarantee. In
sum, a new and difficult era is awaiting Turkey. This is the price of
integrating with Europe and carrying out a true transformation. Let’s
hope it goes smoothly!

–Boundary_(ID_aEOhdJMErocCosuL4Y/NPg)–