"TURKISH MEMBERSHIP IN EU IS DESIRABLE AND PROBLAMATIC AT THE SAME TIME," REPRESENTATIVE OF HEINRICH BOLL FOUNDATION SAYS

NOYAN TAPAN
June 11, 2008

YE REVAN, JUNE 11, NOYAN TAPAN. There is a certain approach towards
the European Union – Turkey negotiation process in Europe: that is,
the European Union pretends that Turkey can become a member of that
structure, and Turkey pretends that it wants to become a member
of the European Union. This statement was made by Ralph Fiucks,
the co-Chairman of the South-Caucasian Bureau of the Heinrich Boll
Foundation, during his speech at the round table on the subject
"The problems of the European integration of Turkey and Armenia",
which was held in the Caucasus Institute on June 10.

According to him, taking into consideration the rate of the European
Union-Turkey negotiations, one can conclude that it is a very slow
process and if it proceeds with the same pace, it may last 10-12
years. The negotiations have started from the easiest technical
subjects and the complicated ones, for example, issues concerning
minorities, judicial-legal reforms and army have not been discussed
as yet.

The negotiations are absed upon the European general treaty,
according to which all the European states can become a member of the
European Union and the Copenhagen standards have been defined for
the other states, taking into consideration the legal and economic
conformity. But they often forget that those standards also define
how many new members the European Union is able to accept from the
financial and institutional point of view without putting the capacity
of making decisions into danger.

According to Ralph Fiucks, in this respect there are certain problems
in case of Turkey. Taking into consideration the great territory of
the country, Turkey will become the greatest country of the European
Union in 20 years, where the national self-consciousness will be very
high. There are great differences between poor and rich regions in
Turkey: there are people, there are problems in the economic sphere,
the heritage of the Kemal authoritarian regime, which is in no harmony
with the values of the European Union, is still preserved.

At the same time, according to R. Fiucks, there is a high degree of
economic integration netween Turkey and the European Union. Turkey
has an enourmous economic potential and is a dynamically developing
country. In addition to this, there is a great Turkish Diaspora in
the Western Europe. Turkey’s membership will also be symbolic for the
integration of Islam into Europe, proving that the European Union is
not a Christian club and is open for people having different religions
and life style. Besides, Turkey can be a binding ring between the
European Union and the region, the South Caucasus, in particular.

Ralph Fiucks mentioned that European countries have different
approaches with regard to the membership issue of Turkey. In
particular, France, the Netherlands and Austria are against. The
inspiration of the supporting countries has not increased of late
as no serious progress has been recorded in Turkey: there is great
pressure on the supporters of the European integration by Kemalists
and soldiers, a regular home political crisis is possible in Turkey
in autumn, which will influence the process of the negotiations with
the European Union.

The prospect of the membership of Turkey in the European Union,
according to Ralph Fiucks, is of great importance for the establishment
of a civil society in that country and the young generation of the
country, which is more oriented towards Europe. It was also mentioned
that changing in this way Turkey can enter the European Union, which
will be of constructive significance for Armenia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress