Turkish Press
Depending on the intentions
Published: 3/18/2005
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BY ERDAL SAFAK
SABAH- Turkey is now concerned over its European Union membership
talks since Brussels decided to postpone entry talks with Croatia due
to its failure to arrest a top war crimes suspect. ˜Will this
decision be a precedent for other candidate countries?’ our diplomats
are now asking. According to our Foreign Ministry, the issue has
nothing to do with Turkey’s membership talks.
However, the international community has interpreted the decision as a
powerful signal to other would-be EU members that they must fully
respect human rights. For example, French Foreign Minister Michel
Barnier said that the EU’s decision is a precedent for Turkey, proving
that Brussels would never give any ground on human rights. In
addition, Joost Lagendijk, the co-president of the Turkey-EU Joint
Parliamentary Commission, stated that Turkey must take the decision to
heart. ˜On Oct. 3, Brussels will examine the list of conditions
that it stipulated had to be completed by that date,’ he added. ˜If
Ankara fails to fulfill even one of them, Brussels can decide to
postpone the country’s accession talks, as in the case of Croatia.’
The final statement of last December’s Brussels summit covered Croatia
in three paragraphs. In the first, Brussels praised the country’s
preparations for EU membership. In the second, Brussels urged Zagreb
to surrender a Croatian former general to the UN war crimes tribunal
for trial. The last paragraph underlines that this is the only
precondition to start the nation’s accession talks.
What about the paragraphs on Turkey? There are seven articles on our
country, from which there seem to be two preconditions: First, the
amendment of the Ankara Agreement in line with the EU’s current
members. In other words, Ankara must recognize the Greek Cypriot
administration. Second, six laws must be approved by the Parliament by
Oct. 3.
However, there are also certain sentences that could be interpreted as
preconditions as well, depending on the intentions of the reader. For
example, Brussels will closely monitor both Turkey’s reform process to
ensure the protection of human rights and basic freedoms, and Ankara’s
progress on political reforms in line with the Accession Partnership
Document.
Moreover, the statement also stressed that Brussels noted the earlier
European Parliament decision on Turkey, which lists a number of
preconditions for Turkey’s membership talks such as Ankara’s official
recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide, opening the Armenian
border, reopening the Heybeliada Seminary and ending compulsory
religion courses in schools. If the EU leaders said that they noted
this EP decision, should we see these as further preconditions or not?
As I said, everything hinges on the intentions. If Brussels has good
intentions towards Ankara, the only problem we’ll have is the Customs
Union. However, if the EU leaders decide to see the summit statement
through another, wider-angle lens, then everything will grow much more
complicated¦