A Detour On Our Route To The European Union?
BY MEHMET OCAKTAN
Turkish Press
March 23 2005
YENI SAFAK – An organized campaign is being carried out against the
Justice and Development Party (AKP). It all began last month when
Robert Pollock’s editorial was published in The Wall Street Journal.
The motive behind Pollock’s accusations of the Turkish government
was obvious. The US is demanding Turkey’s ‘unconditional obedience’
concerning its present and future invasions. On some occasions, the
Pentagon sends its messages aimed at ‘disciplining’ Turkey through
journalists such as Pollock.
Unless we show ‘unconditional obedience,’ we’ll certainly have more
‘trouble’ in the near future. Surviving in this region of ours is a
costly matter.
It’s easy to understand the chill wind between Turkey and the US. As
long as our government refuses to participate in the killings in Iraq,
it can’t be on good terms with Washington. But why has the European
Union turned against our government all of a sudden?
We fulfilled all the conditions laid out in the Copenhagen criteria
before last December. We are still making the legal arrangements
necessary for our EU membership. However, a ‘wind of despair’ on
Turkey’s EU membership has begun to whistle lately. It’s like the
government hasn’t lifted a finger to facilitate Turkey’s membership.
The government is being expected to wave a magic wand to resolve
long-lasting issues such as Cyprus and the Armenian ‘genocide’
claims. These issues are being deliberately used to wear down the
AKP government.
Erdogan is also being criticized for having lost much of his reformist
zeal and having slowed down his pro-change policy. But could this
slowdown be the result of Erdogan’s unwillingness to act hurriedly
on such delicate matters as Cyprus? Yet this government won’t back
down from its EU membership efforts, because the AKP knows that even
a small detour on our road to the EU would leave Turkey defenseless
against ‘disturbances’ from across the Atlantic.