TURKEY ASSAILS EU’S DECISION TO PARTIALLY SUSPEND ENTRY TALKS
By Katrin Bennhold

International Herald Tribune, France
Dec 12 2006

BRUSSELS: Turkey reacted angrily Tuesday to a decision by the European
Union to impose a partial freeze on membership talks and said relations
were going through a difficult test.

The decision on Turkey set the scene for a European summit meeting
Thursday where EU enlargement will figure prominently. The next phase
of expansion takes place Jan. 1, with the entry of Romania and Bulgaria
increasing the size of the bloc to 27 members.

EU foreign ministers agreed Monday to punish Turkey for refusing to
open its ports and airports to Cyprus, an EU member. They suspended
talks on 8 of the 35 issues under negotiation ahead of the possible
accession of the mainly Muslim country more than a decade from now.

The decision is expected to be endorsed by EU leaders at their summit
talks on Thursday.

"This decision is unfair to Turkey," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said in a televised speech. "Let us not forget that our
friends in the EU also have promises they have not fulfilled."

He said that relations between Turkey and the EU were "going through
a serious test, despite all our efforts."

Turks are bitter that they are being punished for not trading with
Cyprus at a time when the EU has not fulfilled a two-year-old pledge
to end a trade embargo on the Turkish Cypriot north of the island.

They point out that Turkish Cyriots backed a United Nations plan to
unify the island in 2004, while Greek Cypriots in the south rejected
it. But the Greek part of the island still became a member of the EU
and now has veto power over Turkish accession.

Egeman Bagis, Erdogan’s chief foreign policy adviser, said the
Cyprus dispute was being used as a smokescreen in the debate
over whether Turkey should join the EU. "Some countries in the EU
unfortunately want to keep it as a Christian club," he said in a
telephone interview. "Some countries are using Cyprus – and Cyprus
is happy to be used."

The focus on Cyprus was also criticized from a different direction.

"The Cyprus issue has distracted from the fundamental issues,"
said Joost Lagendijk of the Netherlands, chairman of the EU’s Joint
Parliamentary Committee with Turkey.

"Human rights, minority rights, women’s rights, freedom of speech –
those are the issues that go to the heart of Turkey’s compatibility
with the European Union," he said.

A report by the European Commission last month that criticized Turkey’s
refusal to trade with Cyprus also faulted Ankara for backsliding on
many promised reforms. Turkey’s limitation of the rights of Kurds and
other minorities was sharply condemned, as were continuing reports
of cases of torture and limits on freedom of expression.

Erdogan’s government has still not scrapped Article 301 of the
penal code, which has allowed the prosecution of Turkish writers and
academics for insulting "Turkishness." A writer, Ipek Calislar, and
a publisher, Fatih Tas, are scheduled to be tried under the measure
next week.

The fact that the EU’s decision Monday did not mention human rights
violations was criticized by an Armenian lobby group. "The silence of
the member countries on other Turkish violations are a lapse that
seriously endangers European integration," a statement from the
European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy said.

Naif Bezwan, a Kurdish researcher at Osnabruck University in Germany,
said: "Of course it’s unacceptable that Turkey does not recognize
a member of the very Union it wants to join, but when it comes to
Turkey’s compatibility with the EU the main issue is how Turkey deals
with religious and national minorities."

Lagendijk said he hoped that a pledge Monday by EU foreign ministers
to seek an end to the economic isolation of the Turkish part of Cyprus
over the next six months would refocus the negotiations on economic
and political reforms.

"You would hardly find anyone in Turkey siding with the EU on Cyprus,"
he said, "but you’ll find a lot of people calling for our support on
human rights and political reforms."

Erdogan on Tuesday vowed to press ahead with reforms.

"Our reform process will continue with the same decisiveness," he said.

But Bagis, his adviser, said some damage had already been done. Ahead
of presidential and legislative elections in Turkey next year, the
mood has turned more nationalistic, and the EU’s demand on Cyprus is
one reason why support for EU membership has fallen sharply over the
last two years, analysts say.