EU WARNS TURKEY OF ‘LONG WAY TO GO’ BEFORE MEMBERSHIP
by Sibel Utku Bila
Agence France Presse
April 10 2008
European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso urged Turkey on Thursday
to speed up democracy reforms, saying that "there is a long way to go"
before it catches up with membership criteria.
Barroso, accompanied by Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, was
visiting Ankara amid simmering political tensions that pose a new
threat to the country’s struggling membership bid.
"It is important to keep the path of reform," he told reporters after
talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "There is still a
long way to go… a lot of work to do."
He urged Ankara to focus on improving freedom of speech, the rights
of women, trade unions and religious and ethnic minorities.
Barroso said he was confident that two new policy areas would be
opened for negotiations with Turkey by July, bringing the total to
eight out of 35 chapters that candidates are required to complete.
With his government under fire for slackening its EU reform drive,
Erdogan reassured that Ankara was "putting all its efforts and
determination" behind the country’s accession bid.
"Our common objective is membership and we cannot accept any other
alternative," he said, referring to opposition by EU countries such
as France and Germany, who advocate special partnership rather than
full accession for the mainly Muslim nation.
A pending court case threatens Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development
Party (AKP) with closure on charges that it is seeking to undermine
Turkey’s secular order and replace it with an Islamist regime.
The case "is not common, to say the least, in a normal, stable and
democratic country," Barroso said, urging the verdict, expected to take
up at least six months, should be compatible with European standards.
Rehn has earlier signalled that Turkey’s accession talks could be
derailed if the AKP is banned.
AKP supporters see the court case as a fresh attack by hardline
secularists, whose prominent members include senior judges, the
military and some academics, after the party’s re-election for a
second term in July with almost 47 percent of the vote.
The AKP has disowned its roots in a now-banned Islamist movement and
pledged commitment to democracy, launching a series of reforms that
led to the start of Turkey’s EU accession talks in 2005.
But critics argue that the AKP aims to advance its Islamist ambitions
under the guise of improving religious freedoms in line with EU
norms, and point to the abolition of a ban on the Islamic headscarf
in universities and the prohibition of alcohol in restaurants run by
AKP municipalities.
Many Turks are frustrated with what they see as inadequate EU support
for the country’s much-cherished secular system.
Keen to mend its pro-EU credibility, the government submited to
parliament this week a proposal to amend a law the EU has denounced
as a threat to freedom of speech in Turkey.
Barroso welcomed the draft as "a step in the right direction."
The proposal aims to soften Article 301 of the penal code, which
calls for up to three years in jail for "insulting Turkishness"
and has been used mainly against critics of Turkey’s official line
on Armenian massacres under the Ottoman Empire.
The provision has landed dozens of intellectuals, among them 2006
Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk, in court.
Some — including slain ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink —
were convicted, but their sentences were suspended and no one has
yet been jailed.
Turkey’s membership bid took a serious blow in 2006 when Brussels
froze negotiations on eight chapters over Turkey’s refusal to grant
trade privileges to EU member Cyprus, which Ankara does not recognise.
Erdogan stressed Thursday that Ankara was in favour of a rapid
settlement to Cyprus’ 34-year division between its Turkish and Greek
communities, which lies at the core of the dispute.