‘AK PARTY MAY SUSPEND RELATIONS WITH EU’
By Ayhan Simsek

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Sept 26 2005

* Former PM Yilmaz: EU declaration is Greek Cypriot victory

ANKARA – Former PM Yilmaz, who led liberal reforms for EU bid,
criticizes the EU’s link between Turkey’s accession and Cyprus in
counter-declaration. ‘The AK Party govt can’t meet excessive demands,
such as moving towards recognizing Greek Cyprus or opening ports,
due to domestic political concerns,’ he says. ‘But my worry is that
given rising nationalism in Turkey, they may go towards suspending
relations with the EU’

Yilmaz criticizes the EU for undermining UN peace efforts and diverting
the issue to the EU, just as the Greek Cypriots wanted.

‘This has come about through support from some EU members opposing
Turkey’s membership,’ he says. ‘They’re using Cyprus to obstruct
or delay Turkey’s membership. If not Cyprus they would’ve used the
Kurdish issue. Failing that, it would have been the genocide claims’

The ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party government can’t meet
the European Union’s excessive demands, such as moving towards a
recognition of Greek Cyprus or opening its ports, due to domestic
political concerns, said former Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, in an
exclusive interview with The New Anatolian on Friday.

“But my worry is that, because of rising nationalism in the country,
they may go towards suspending relations with the EU,” he warned.

Yilmaz, a prominent Turkish politician, 1997-99 Motherland Party
(then ANAP) prime minister and later deputy premier who initiated
key EU accession reforms, criticized the EU’s recent Cyprus
counter-declaration for having established a link between Turkey’s
EU membership process and the Cyprus problem, as well as requesting
the recognition of Greek Cyprus during negotiations.

“The EU gave us a commitment at the 1999 Helsinki summit that Turkey’s
membership and the Cyprus issue were separate issues,” said Yilmaz,
referring to the summit at which Turkey officially became an EU
candidate. “However, they tried to retract this at last December’s EU
summit and in doing so benefited from the AK Party’s foreign policy
missteps. Requesting our signature on the Ankara Protocol was, in
fact, aimed at linking the two issues. And we have to admit that
through the counter-declaration, the Greek Cypriots have achieved
a strategic victory. They sidelined the United Nations’ efforts for
peace and moved the issue to the EU.”

According to Yilmaz, downplaying the declaration since it’s not legally
binding would be a mistake. “It’s true that Turkey’s negotiations
framework is more important than the declaration. But the declaration
will be the basis for future EU policies on Cyprus.

Next year the Greek Cypriots will try to push the EU by using it,”
he underlined.

Turkey to pay for AK Party missteps

Yilmaz recalled the warning he made just before last December’s
EU summit that Turkey should maintain a firm stance on the issue
and strongly reject any reference to Cyprus as part of Turkey’s EU
membership process. “Given the AK Party’s short-term policies and
missteps at that time, Turkey is paying a heavy price today. The
Greek Cypriots took advantage of political changes in Europe. The
year before, after the (April 2004) Annan referendum on Cyprus,
Turkey’s position was stronger on the issue but today the overall
climate has changed,” Yilmaz stressed.

Some members using Cyprus as pretext

While decrying the counter-declaration for undermining UN peace efforts
on Cyprus, Yilmaz also criticized several EU members for using the
Cyprus issue as a pretext to obstruct Turkey’s EU membership in the
near future. Underlining that the Greek Cypriots managed to get such a
declaration through the support of those members, Yilmaz said, “They
had the Cyprus issue to use. If they hadn’t had the Cyprus problem,
they would have used the Kurdish issue. Failing that, it would have
been the Armenian ‘genocide’ claims.”

While strongly criticizing the EU’s Cyprus counter-declaration and
maintaining that the AK Party government may go forward and suspend
relations with the EU, Yilmaz adopted a more cautious position on
freezing relations with the EU now.

“It’s better to wait and see the final decision on the negotiations
framework,” he said. “If they also put such clauses on Cyprus in the
framework, it will be unacceptable to Turkey. Otherwise the start of
negotiations will be good for Turkey. But progress can only be made
through a solution on Cyprus. So Turkey has to work hard for that.

And I believe that Turkey will find support for this from the
international community.”