Zaman, Turkey
Oct 28 2006
Is Turkey’s EU Bid Becoming a Mirage?
SELCUK GULTASLI
10.28.2006 Saturday – ISTANBUL 14:55
The EU progress report on Turkey, to be released on Nov. 8, is just
as important as the one that paved the way for membership talks with
Ankara two years ago.
The report’s tone and the recommendation to be made on the Cyprus
issue will, to a great extent, affect the opinions of leaders who
will be attending the EU summit in December.
While an ordinary report was being expected on a country which has
already started membership talks, both Turkey and the European Union
agree that the document has become very important, amid rumors that
the negotiation process will be suspended, making many people wonder
how far the entanglement will go.
Or, as eloquently stated by an Arab writer, have the negotiations
become a mirage? And if they have, is it wise to vent anger only
against the European Union?
Turkey has started to believe that what it has done for the sake of
progress does not mean much to the European Union. If the already
ambiguous full membership goal is further diluted by the influential
EU leaders, who believe 2025 is Turkey’s most probable admission
date, it means it is time for those in Brussels to clarify their
minds over what they have offered to Turkey. Jose Manuel Barroso, the
president of the European Commission, whose remarks imply that Turkey
cannot be a full member in 15-20 years, is as irrational as France’s
bill on the so-called Armenian genocide. Just as the voices of those
who sought amendments to Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code have
become weaker since the French bill was adopted, Brussels is now
compelled to figure out how to encourage a candidate country to
embark upon further reforms for the sake of a very vague membership
perspective that will materialize in 15 years at the earliest.
And just as the anti-Turkey meeting between Paris, the capital of
secularism, and the Vatican, the capital of Christianity, is seen as
contradictory; it is also strange that the Justice and Development
Party (AKP) administration, the innovator of the Ankara criteria,
cannot comprehend what the reluctance in implementing the reforms
signifies. This is because for the AKP administration, the EU
membership process is like riding a bicycle; when the reforms come to
a halt, the pedals of the administration’s bicycle spin aimlessly.
In such an environment, the visionary politician turns into a
populist, while President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and People’s Republican
Party leader Deniz Baykal `confuse’ official messages with Ramadan
holiday messages, and issue `progressive’ warnings against
reactionary movements. Then, Washington-based think tanks express
support for the remarks of Baykal, who gives assurances that they
will replace the reactionary order with the enlightened revolution of
the secular republic. All of a sudden, these think tanks label Sezer
and Chief of Staff Yasar Buyukanit as the Turkish `Senate.’ Hence,
the generals, aware that their statements will be reflected on the
progress report, partake in politics with their uniforms on to show
that the EU membership goal, in fact, is nothing more than a mirage.
No matter how negative it might be, the Nov. 8 report and the
decision to be made at the December summit may present new dynamics
that could possibly prevent the process from turning into a mirage,
and make both Turkey and the EU question the weight of the whole
issue. We are getting closer to the days when both sides will need to
make such evaluations.