EU REBUKES TURKEY ON REFORM PACE
By Dan Bilefsky International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune, France
Sept 4 2006
BRUSSELS European Union lawmakers on Monday sharply criticized Turkey
for its slow pace of reform and warned that failure to make progress
in a dispute over Cyprus risked bringing entry negotiations to a halt.
The toughly worded report by the European Parliament’s powerful
foreign affairs committee also cited insufficient progress on freedom
of expression and raised concerns about the country’s treatment of
religious minorities, the Kurdish population and women.
The European Parliament must approve whether a candidate country
can join the EU and its views are seen as an important barometer of
a country’s membership prospects. Negotiations are expected to last
up to 15 years.
"The European Parliament regrets the slowing down of the reform
process," said the report, written by Camiel Eurlings, a Dutch
conservative. He chided Turkey for "persistent shortcomings"
and singled out Cyprus as a key stumbling block. The Parliament’s
impatience reflects a growing wariness in the EU of the risks of
further enlargement and of Turkey’s candidacy in particular.
The possibility of Turkey’s eventual admission was a significant
factor in the rejection of the EU’s constitution in France and the
Netherlands, where voters remain anxious about admitting a large,
agrarian Muslim country.
Olli Rehn, the EU’s expansion commissioner, recently warned that
Turkey was heading toward a "train crash" with the EU.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive, will publish its
assessment of Turkey’s membership progress on Oct. 24 amid growing
concern that the momentum for reform has dramatically slowed since
entry talks began last year. Turkey has, for example, been slow
in enacting a promised law guaranteeing the property rights of the
Christian minority, while a controversial article of the penal code
used to prosecute writers and intellectuals remains on the books.
The deepest immediate division between Turkey and the Union is
Turkey’s failure to open its ports and airports to traffic from part
of Cyprus. Eager to avoid inflaming Turkish public opinion ahead of
presidential elections in May and parliamentary elections in autumn
2007, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has insisted that Turkey
will not recognize the Greek half of the divided island until the EU
lifts trade barriers against Turkish Cyprus, which is recognized by
Turkey alone.
Speaking after a two-day EU foreign ministers meeting on Saturday,
Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja of Finland, whose country holds the
EU’s rotating presidency, warned that if Turkey failed to sign a
protocol extending the EU customs union to Cyprus, "it will create
a serious situation."
Echoing his concerns, the Parliament’s report Monday called on Turkey
to recognize Cyprus by the end of 2006 or face possible suspension of
its entry talks. "A lack of progress in this regard will have serious
implications for the negotiation process and could even bring it to
a halt," the report said.
Mehmet Dulger, chairman of the Turkish Parliament’s foreign affairs
committee and a prominent member of the governing AK party, said in
an interview that Turkey was determined to speed up reforms.
But he added that Turks were increasingly frustrated with the demands
placed on them by the EU and that the constant criticism by Brussels
was creating a backlash. "All of these requirements placed on Turkey
create the impression that the EU will never be satisfied, no matter
what Turkey does," he said.
He added that the EU had exacerbated the Cyprus problem by admitting
the Greek part of the divided island before the conflict had been
resolved.
Referring to Turkey’s progress on human rights, the report praised
recent acquittals of scholars and novelists like Orhan Pamuk, who had
been prosecuted for "insulting Turkishness." But it cited concerns
over cases such as that of an Armenian-Turkish editor, Hrant Dink,
who was recently given a suspended six-month jail term for saying
that Turkey, under the Ottoman Empire, had committed genocide against
Armenians during World War I.