Turkish Press
March 4 2005
Is Our Friendship With Germany Near An End?
BY MUSTAFA BALBAY
CUMHURIYET- The news from the EU isn’t encouraging at all. Here’s the
dilemma: The EU constantly delays its responsibilities toward Turkey,
while asking Turkey to do whatever it asks immediately and without
question.
Apparently, this dilemma will endure as long as our government fails
to take an appropriate stand against it.
Remarks made by the EU and Turkey both underline this double standard
chanted by every EU official visiting Turkey. There’s also been an
evident change in European governments’ policies against Turkey.
One example of this change is our disagreement with Germany on `the
Armenian issue.’ An elderly German priest named Johannes Lepsius
claims that he witnessed the Armenian genocide. His house is now
being used as a propaganda center. Angela Merkel, leader of the
German opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has presented a
resolution to the Federal Parliament that can be summarized as
follows:
‘During the Ottoman reign, Armenians were victims of a large-scale
genocide through which 1.2-1.5 million Armenians lost their lives. As
the legal successor of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey denies that such an
event happened. Turkey must show unconditional assent on this issue.’
German Ambassador to Ankara Wolf-Ruthart Born was recently summoned
to the Turkish Foreign Ministry and told that such initiatives would
have a negative effect on bilateral relations.
When I called Mehmet Ali Irtemcelik, Turkey’s Ambassador to Berlin,
he gave me a brief and clear explanation of the matter:
`I’m afraid that the damage this resolution could cause will be wide,
deep and irreparable. We hope they will soon come to see this, and
we’re working to make this happen.’
In light of these recent events, the state of Turkey’s EU membership
process could be summed up like this: Neither grant full membership
to Turkey, nor allow it to go anywhere else.