Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 5 2009

EU to note reform improvements, refrain from Cyprus sanctions

Photo: Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt (L) and his Greek Cypriot
counterpart, Markos Kyprianou, are seen together in this file photo.
Greek Cyprus is pressuring Sweden, which holds the EU presidency, to
step up criticism against Turkey in a resolution to be adopted at an
EU summit next week.

The European Union is expected to chide Turkey next week for refusing
to open its ports and airports to traffic from Greek Cyprus but will
refrain from imposing sanctions on the Muslim candidate country. The
27-nation bloc will also note that there has been improvement in the
areas of the judiciary and military-civilian relations and praise the
government’s efforts to expand rights for Kurds.

The draft resolution, prepared by the Swedish Presidency of the EU,
expresses `regret’ that Turkey, `despite repeated calls, has not yet
fulfilled its obligation of full non-discriminatory implementation of
the Additional Protocol to the Association Agreement,’ a document
which the EU says commits Turkey to opening its ports and airports to
vessels from EU member Greek Cyprus. In 2006, the EU suspended
negotiations with Turkey on eight relevant chapters — out of 35 in
total — because of Turkey’s non-compliance and vowed to review the
issue once again in December 2009, suggesting that a suspension of the
accession talks process could be an option. But the draft text
prepared for next week’s ministerial meeting on Dec. 7-8 and leaders’
summit on Dec. 10-11 calls for no definite sanction, angering the
Greek Cypriots, who have pressured the Swedish presidency to toughen
the text.

`The Council will continue to closely follow and review progress made,
in accordance with its conclusions of Dec. 11, 2006, and other related
Council conclusions. Progress is now expected without further delay,’
the draft resolution, a copy of which was obtained by Today’s Zaman,
says. The document was being discussed at a meeting of COREPER, an EU
body comprised of permanent representatives of the member states at
the 27-nation bloc.

The text is to be submitted to the EU foreign ministers for evaluation
at their Dec. 7-8 meeting before being sent to the leaders for final
approval. Amendments are possible in all meetings.

The draft discussed at yesterday’s COREPER meeting also urges Turkey
to `actively support’ ongoing negotiations `aimed at a fair,
comprehensive and viable settlement of the Cyprus problem within the
UN framework, in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council
resolutions and in line with the principles on which the Union is
founded, including concrete steps to help bring about a climate
favorable to such a comprehensive settlement.’

Turkey says it will not open its ports and airports to traffic from
Greek Cyprus, which it does not recognize, unless the EU takes a step
towards fulfilling its own promises to lift severe economic sanctions
on the internationally unrecognized Turkish Cyprus. Despite promising
to allow direct trade with the isolated Turkish Cyprus in 2004, the EU
has so far not taken any step to that effect, under pressure from
Greek Cyprus, which joined the EU as the representative of the entire
island shortly after the EU plan for direct trade with Turkish Cyprus
was unveiled. The Greek Cypriots claim EU steps to allow trade with
the Turkish Cypriots would deepen the island’s division. They
rejected, however, a UN plan to reunite the island just before
accession to the EU, while the Turkish Cypriots accepted it.

Turkish leaders have warned in the past few days that any EU decision
to impose sanctions on Turkey over the Cyprus ports dispute would have
serious repercussions on Turkish-EU ties. `There are already too many
sanctions on Turkey because of Cyprus,’ Egemen BaÄ?ıÅ?, Turkey’s chief
EU negotiator, said in a speech in Brussels on Thursday. `Any
additional sanctions will kill the motivation of my leaders towards
the EU.’

Positive steps in problematic areas
Leaving aside the Cyprus criticism, the document is expected to please
the Turkish government as it acknowledges improvements in a number of
problematic areas such as civilian-military relations. `Positive steps
have been registered in the areas of the judiciary, civil-military
relations and cultural rights,’ it says. The EU says it is also
`encouraged by the government’s democratic initiative including on the
Kurdish issue.’

The government is pushing for a massive democratization drive that,
among other things, will expand rights for Turkey’s Kurds. The
initiative, which has the backing of Western powers such as the EU and
the US and Middle Eastern neighbors including Syria and Iraq, has been
severely criticized at home by the nationalist opposition, which says
it will undermine Turkey’s national unity.

The draft resolution says the democratization initiative `should lead
to concrete measures guaranteeing all Turkish citizens full rights and
freedoms and should significantly improve the situation in the
Southeast’ and adds that the EU `welcomes the government’s efforts
towards building a national consensus, which will also be beneficial
to the reform process, including the work on a constitutional reform.’

But it also urges Ankara to step up the pace of reforms, particularly
in the areas of freedom of expression, elimination of torture, freedom
of the press, freedom of religion for all religious communities, trade
union rights, civilian oversight of the military and gender equality.
`The Council notes that the negotiations have reached a more demanding
stage requiring Turkey to step up its efforts in meeting all
conditions,’ it says.

It also includes a paragraph which appears to ease Turkey’s concerns
that the accession process, which should proceed according to the
Turkish progress in meeting technical standards, is being stalled due
to political opposition to Turkish accession in some EU countries.
`The Council points out that the negotiating chapters for which
technical preparations have been concluded will be opened or closed
provisionally, according to established procedures,’ says the
document.

`Important player’
The document acknowledges Turkey’s growing clout in its region, saying
it is an `important player’ which has a key role in `energy supply and
the promotion of dialogue between civilizations.’ It welcomes `the
significant diplomatic efforts made to normalize relations with
Armenia, resulting in the historic signature of protocols for the
normalization of relations in October 2009. It looks forward to the
ratification and implementation of the protocols as soon as possible.’

05 December 2009, Saturday
SELÃ?UK GÃ`LTAÅ?LI BRUSSELS