EU COMMISSIONER URGES "CREDIBLE" ENTRY TALKS WITH TURKEY

Liberation , France (translated)
Nov 1 2006

European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has said "credible" EU
membership negotiations with Turkey mean support for the country’s
pro-reform forces. "Otherwise there is a major risk that these
tendencies will turn away from Europe, with all the dangers that this
would entail", he said. If the EU suspended membership negotiations
with Turkey, it would be difficult to break of the "vicious circle"
of mutual disappointment, he said. The following is the text of
interview with Rehn by Jean Quatremer in Brussels "a fortnight ago",
entitled "’Our relations with Ankara are schizophrenic’", published
by French newspaper Liberation website on 1 November; first paragraph
is Liberation editor’s note:

Brussels: Should we or should we not freeze membership negotiations
with Turkey, since the latter still denies Cypriot ships and aircraft
access to its ports and airports, in violation of the Ankara protocol,
despite being a signatory? The European Commission, which will be
submitting a report on the matter to the EU’s 25 member states at the
beginning of November, opposes it, though it criticizes the "slowness
of the reforms". In an interview given to Liberation a fortnight ago,
Finland’s Olli Rehn, commissioner for enlargement, explained why:

[Quatremer] Should negotiations be suspended?

[Rehn] No, if Turkey does what it is supposed to do. Though we must
be strict with Ankara, we must also be fair.

On the one hand, we must demand strict observance of the criteria,
especially as regards fundamental freedoms such as freedom of
expression and religion, criminal law, and so forth. But on the other
hand, the EU must keep its word: We promised Turkey membership once
it is ready.

Our relations with this country are schizophrenic. Within the EU,
we underestimate its strategic importance, whereas, conversely,
Turkey places it at such a level that it considers it possible to
obtain a more lenient assessment of the criteria. This will not happen.

On top of this, there is the negative spiral that has recently begun:
There is a feeling of disappointment in Turkey because they think
that "the Europeans do not want us in the EU". As for the EU, it is
disappointed with the slowness of the reforms, which lack sufficient
credibility, which prompts public suspicion. It is a real vicious
circle, which I want to break, and it will be difficult to do so if
we suspend membership negotiations.

[Quatremer] What is to be done to force Turkey to abide by the Ankara
protocol?

[Rehn] This is the key question this autumn. In September 2005 the
Twenty-Five declared that if Turkey did not implement the protocol
there would be negative consequences for the negotiation process.

However, the Turkish government forms a link between this issue and
that of direct trade between the EU and the Turkish Cypriot community,
which we have promised to authorize (but which Nicosia blocks –
Liberation editor’s note,) a link that we reject. The Finnish
presidency, backed by all its partners, is currently negotiating
with both Cypriot communities and with Turkey with a view to finding
a solution.

[Quatremer] The Turkish military have just made it known that, as
far as they are concerned, there can be no question of returning
to their barracks once and for all, as the EU requires. What do you
think about this?

[Rehn] The democratization of relations between civilians and the
military has made great progress. For instance, there is now a majority
of civilians in the National Security Council, and its chairman, also
the prime minister, and secretary-general are civilians. But it is
necessary to go further. I respect the Turkish Army’s responsibility
for defence matters, but the military clearly must submit to the
authority and supervision of the civil authorities.

[Quatremer] The army occupies a special position in Turkey because
it is the guarantor of democracy and secularism. By asking the army
to stay in its barracks, are you not playing into the Islamists’ hands?

[Rehn] The EU does not want to help the Islamists – I can assure you
of that. The guarantee that the army claims to provide is a false one;
for instance, whenever the army has intervened, it has not prevented
Islamist schools from developing.

People in Europe have an excessive tendency to forget that membership
negotiations are a support offered to the modernizing forces at work in
Turkey, whether within the Kemalist nationalist tendency (powerful in
the army, the judiciary and the administration – Liberation editor’s
note;) the post-Islamist tendency, currently in power, which sees the
EU as a guarantee against a military intervention; or the middle class,
who are probably the most pro-European at present, through they lack
their own political expression.

As long as the negotiations remain credible, the pro-reform forces will
be supported. Otherwise there is a major risk that these tendencies
will turn away from Europe, with all the dangers that this would
entail.

[Quatremer] Is Turkey’s recognition of the Armenian genocide a
precondition for membership?

[Rehn] It is not a membership criterion. However, it is absolutely
clear that reconciliation is a fundamental value in Europe, which
is why I have regularly called on Turkey to conduct an open debate,
without taboos, on this issue.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress