Turkey losing enthusiasm for joining European Union
Many citizens think member nations are biased against them
San Francisco Chronicle
Seth Rosen, Chronicle Foreign Service
Friday, June 17, 2005
Ankara, Turkey — With Europe still reeling over the “no” votes in
France and the Netherlands on the European constitution, many Turks
are also having second thoughts about their 40-year drive to join
the European Union.
“If the Europeans are backing out of their own project, then why should
we be so enthusiastic?” asked Dogu Ergil, a newspaper columnist and
professor at Ankara University.
For Turks, the French rejection of the constitution occurred on an
ironic day — May 29, the anniversary of the Ottoman Turks’ capture
of Constantinople in 1453 and their emergence as a power extending
into Europe.
To many Frenchmen, the referendum seemed to be a way to repel another
Turkish invasion of Europe.
“Europeans are frightened of us and have prejudices against us,
but they don’t know anything about Turkey or our experience over the
last 100 years,” said Dogan Selcuk, a 31-year-old computer engineer
in Istanbul.
One of the central themes of the “no” campaign in France and the
Netherlands was opposition to enlargement of the bloc, and especially
to the membership of predominantly Muslim Turkey.
In the days leading up to the French referendum, posters reading
“Turkey in Europe … I vote No” were plastered on walls in
France. Dutch voters turned down the proposed constitution three days
later, on June 1.
Now there is concern that the fervent anti-Turkish tenor of the debates
in both countries foretells setbacks for Ankara’s aspirations and
will further erode Turkish support for membership, which had already
dwindled as the Europeans demanded a string of concessions on human
rights and judicial and political reform.
In the most recent poll, conducted just weeks before the referendums,
support for EU membership had fallen to 63 percent, from 75 percent
in December, when Turkey finally secured a date to begin negotiations
for membership.
“Europeans don’t fully understand the limits to patience on this
side,” said Suat Kiniklioglu, director of the Ankara office of the
German Marshall Fund of the United States. “The euphoria is gone.”
On Wednesday, EU President Jose Manuel Barroso said members of the
coalition must honor its commitments to Turkey despite public concern
about the expansion plans, calling it a question of “good faith.” He
made the comments in Brussels at a press conference on the eve of
the first all-member EU meeting since the two “no” votes were cast.
To many Turks, the EU has long been seen as an elixir for all that
ails the nation. Proponents still believe that EU membership will
buttress the burgeoning democracy and transform the country into a
potent economic force, as it did for Spain.
Under pressure from the EU, the governing Justice and Development
Party has abolished the death penalty, curtailed human rights abuses,
reduced the role of the military in civilian affairs and granted
ethnic Kurds more cultural rights.
But reform fatigue has set in, said Omer Taspinar, a Turkish expert at
the Brookings Institution in Washington. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan did not appoint a chief negotiator for the process until
mid-May, and to the chagrin of the EU, the Turkish parliament was
slow in passing a new penal code that further protects women’s rights.
Although EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said negotiations on
Turkey’s admission should begin in October as scheduled, despite the
referendum, many in this nation of 70 million have become disillusioned
with the stringent stipulations of the EU.
“Enthusiasm about membership is eroding, and as the EU demands become
clearer, the public will shy away more and more,” said Hasan Unal,
a professor of international relations at Bilkent University here in
Turkey’s capital.
Since the EU’s go-ahead in December, many Turks have seen a sea
change in the attitude of Europeans. As public opinion across the
continent has crystallized against Turkish accession to their club,
European politicians have started taking a firmer stance as well.
“There’s a panic in Europe right now because they didn’t think
Turkey would implement the reforms so quickly and meet the EU
challenges,” said Zekeriya Akcam, a lawmaker from the ruling Justice
and Development Party who participated in the convention that drafted
the EU constitution.
In an attempt to bolster the pro-constitution campaign, French
President Jacques Chirac even pledged to hold a separate referendum
on Turkey’s membership. And to ease the fears of member states that
unskilled laborers will inundate their countries, measures also have
been promised to prevent the free movement of labor in the initial
years of Turkey’s membership.
Such moves are seen as evidence of increasingly unjust treatment
of Turkey’s application, said Onur Oymen, the vice chairman of the
Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee and a member of parliament for
the opposition Republican People’s Party, who points out that French
citizens did not vote when Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania applied to
join the EU.
In the latest volley, the European Court of Human Rights, based in
France, ruled last month that the 1999 trial of Kurdish rebel leader
Abdullah Ocalan was unfair because of the participation of an impartial
military judge.
Though the court is not an EU institution, the Ocalan case is seen as a
litmus test of Turkey’s commitment to improving its human rights record
and implementing painful reforms that are a prerequisite to membership.
Some analysts believe the EU is meddling in Turkey’s internal affairs
to dissuade it from continuing down the negotiation path. “What
the EU is trying to do is frustrate us with unacceptable demands so
that Turkey will say, ‘We give up and don’t want to be a member,’
” said Unal, the professor at Bilkent University. “This way they
don’t have to turn us down.”
The prospect of having to make concessions on politically sensitive
topics has also made more Turks question the price of membership.
Some European politicians, emphatically led by the French, have called
on Turkey to recognize the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks in 1915 as “genocide” — a red line for all Turkish politicians.
The EU also insists that Turkey extend its 1996 customs agreement
with the EU to the 10 member states that joined in 2004, including
Cyprus. This would amount to unprecedented recognition of Cyprus by
Turkey, which backs the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus on the divided Mediterranean island.
“People are disappointed with the double standards we are facing,”
said Hasan Ali Karasar, a researcher at Ankara’s Center for Eurasian
Strategic Studies. “What they ask for is against our tradition,
culture, history and strategic location.”
A growing chorus of pundits in Turkey, frustrated with perceived
EU meddling in internal affairs, is beginning to see a “privileged
partnership” – – a category that would cement economic ties while
leaving contentious political issues aside — as an alternative to
full membership. The formula is advocated by many anti-constitution
campaigners in France and the Netherlands, and by Germany’s Christian
Democrats, who are favored to win elections in September.
The government is still insisting, for now, that the final target
must remain full membership.
“A privileged partnership is not on the agenda,” said Kiniklioglu of
the German Marshall Fund. “We must continue the drive toward reform
and membership. We go all the way or bust.”