CRITICISM MOUNTS ON MERKEL OVER ‘PRIVILEGED’ OFFER
Hurriyet
March 31 2010
Turkey
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan. DHA photo
Criticism mounted on the German chancellor Wednesday after returning
home from Turkey where she offered no solid step on delicate issues,
including debates over Turkey’s European Union membership bid and
Turkish-language education in Germany.
The junior partner in German coalition government, the Free Democratic
Party, or FDP, has criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel for her
incapacity to push "open-ended" EU negotiations for Turkey within
her own party.
The fundamental rejection of Turkey’s full membership bid by the
majority of the Christian Democratic Party, or CDU, and the Christian
Social Union, or CSU, stood in stark contrast to the coalition treaty,
which states "open-ended" negotiations with Turkey, Michael Link,
parliamentary speaker for European affairs and FDP lawmaker, told
the German Suddeutsche Zeitung.
His remarks came as a German parliamentarian from Merkel’s CDU
countered the chancellor by supporting Turkey’s full European Union
membership. Expressing the belief that it would be better to have
Turkey in the bloc, Ruprecht Polenz, the foreign affairs committee
chair of the CDU, added that Turkey should first fully comply with
EU criteria.
Link, from the pro-business FDP, said they would hope that the
chancellor would be able to carry through the coalition treaty in
her own party.
"Those who criticize accession negotiations with Turkey are overlooking
that Turkey has gained enormous strategic importance. And they are
missing out on the fact that we already have a privileged partnership
with Turkey," he said.
During her visit to Turkey, Merkel said she now understood that
"privileged partnership" had a bad connotation in Turkey and confirmed
Germany would be a partner, but the adjective would still have to
be defined.
Schroeder hails Turkey
Meanwhile, former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Tuesday
praised Turkey for courageous reforms and called for Germany to
get rid of the privileged partnership debate in an interview with a
German daily.
"The steps that are being taken have historical character as
they pertain to basic democratization, Kurdish politics and the
normalization process with Armenia. Germany and the EU are better off
supporting Turkey, because it is obvious that pro-European factions
in Turkey face big obstacles," Schroeder told the daily Bild.
He warned of nationalistic politics in Turkey, which would isolate
the country and endanger European security. "Turkey ranks among the
top 20 economies of the world, and is by far stronger in that aspect
than EU-members such as Sweden, Poland or Belgium," he said.
In regard to the education debate sparked by Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan’s demand for Turkish language schools in Germany,
Schroeder said, "Children who speak perfect German as well as perfect
Turkish are an asset for Germany because Turkey is an important
political, cultural and economic partner."
Schroeder also supported Erdogan’s suggestion of encouraging the
integration of Turkish migrants in Germany by fostering bilingual
schools and increasing the number of teachers of Turkish background
who have graduated form German universities.
German-Turkish schools could help overcome deficits in integration
and make Germany more international, Schroeder said.
"But of course all children, including those with a migration
background, should be fully proficient in German," he said.