AHTISAARI REPORT COMMENDS TURKEY FOR EU NEGOTIATIONS

Hurriyet Daily News
Thursday, September 24, 2009
WASHINGTON, D.C.

Former Finnish President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari,
now the chairman of the Independent Commission on Turkey, spoke about
his commission’s latest report on Turkey, "Turkey in Europe: Breaking
the Vicious Circle," at a conference in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

At his speech at the Brookings Institute, Ahtisaari said some EU
countries expressed their opinions that Turkey would not be an EU
member after the negotiations had started, which was against EU
decisions made unanimously at EU summits.

The EU should not treat Turkey differently, Ahtisaari said, adding
that the EU’s credibility was at stake.

He said more than half of the chapters of the negotiation process
were blocked, adding that such a negative attitude caused a fall
in support for the EU among the Turkish public. Nearly 70 percent
of Turkey’s population had been in favor of EU membership in 2000,
but that number has dropped to 42 percent, Ahtisaari said.

Ahtisaari said there were no reasons for Europe to be afraid of
Turkey’s membership. He said he would not feel uncomfortable if a Turk,
such as Kemal DerviÅ~_ or Abdullah Gul, presided over an EU meeting.

He noted the Turkish government should continue its energetic stance
over reforms, which he said were slowed "after some domestic issues
such as the closure case against ruling AK [Justice and Development]
Party, coup threats, controversial presidential election, Ergenekon
probe and PKK terrorism." Ahtisaari urged Turkey to amend the 1982
Constitution.

But Ahtisaari also said there were encouraging signs in Turkey:
the approval of the National Program, the appointment of chief EU
negotiator, the launch of a state-run TV broadcast in Kurdish language,
academic institutes for Kurdish to be opened in universities, the
meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Democratic
Society Party, or DTP, leader Ahmet Turk, and vil courts.

He said he had meetings with European leaders before his trip to the
United States and asked them to treat Turkey fairly, stop blocking
negotiations and not talk about anything other than full membership.

Ahtisaari also touched on recent development about relations between
Turkey and Armenia, saying that resolutions in foreign parliaments
regarding the incidents of 1915 were not helpful for efforts to settle
the problems between Turkey and Armenia.

He said good relations between Turkey and Armenia would have positive
effects on the entire Caucasian region