AS THE GOVERNMENT EMPHASIZES THE EU AGENDA…
By Abdulhamit Bilici, Luxembourg
Zaman, Turkey
Oct 17 2006
[NEWS IMPRESSION] — When I was invited to take part in Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul’s trip to Luxembourg, I assumed the number of
journalists accompanying him would be no more than five.
I realized I was mistaken when I entered the small VIP hall of
Ankara’s Esenboga Airport and was greeted by a large number of media
representatives, the likes of which I’d only seen on critical dates
such as Dec. 17 and Oct. 3.
Major newspapers’ Ankara correspondents as well as columnists
Taha Akyol, Cengiz Candar and Mehmet Altan were invited. The
editor-in-chiefs of certain newspapers were also invited, but Referans’
Eyup Can was the only one who came.
TV channels were not forgotten either. A Turkish Airlines Airbus was
chartered for the occasion because the number of attendees was so high.
At first I wondered if the Oct.16 troika meeting had an important
aspect we hadn’t considered yet. While it was certainly important,
it was not a meeting where historical decisions would be taken. The
troika meeting is routinely held once during each six-month EU term
presidency.
This particular meeting could almost be considered symbolic, for it
nearly coincided with the anniversary of Oct. 3, the starting date
for Turkey’s EU membership negotiations.
Besides, this troika would be held just a week the screening process
was completed. This presented a good opportunity to evaluate the
previous year and to handle the upcoming term in a sense.
It was also important for it would be the last top level meeting before
the expected Nov. 8 Progress Report. The Cyprus issue that could cause
a "train crash" in the EU process along with the Finnish proposals
would be discussed in this meeting, though nobody was expecting a
final Cyprus solution to emerge.
After having considered these possibilities one by one, I thought this
trip’s intended message, with such a crowded media contingent, was
more important than the troika meeting itself, especially considering
that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had been criticized
lately for slowing down EU reforms.
In political terms, there were some points vindicating this slowing
down. For instance, domestic support for the EU was rapidly falling,
partly because of Europe’s unjust statements on the Cyprus and
Armenian issues.
Support in Turkey regressed to 40 percent, an EU poll revealed.
Moreover, dealing with the issues of Cyprus and article 301 of the
Turkish Penal Code, the solutions of which could be regarded as
concessions in an election atmosphere, also complicated support for
the EU issues.
However, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement that he
instructed State Minister Ali Babacan to spend one week of every
month in Europe was the first signal that the government had decided
to handle the issue again.
As a matter of fact, Babacan, accompanied by journalists, visited
three EU capitals last week. Erdogan met Tony Blair on the way back
from the United States and hosted German Chancellor Angela Merkel
when he returned to Turkey.
As such, Erdogan made his own contribution to this process. Probably
for this very reason, Minister Gul decided to travel to the Troika
meeting accompanied by a large delegation.
Though the increasing frequency of these visits reinforces the image
that the European Union agenda has not been forgotten, the government,
claiming it is distancing itself from a populist discourse, will be
mainly tested on the issue of article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.
This is the right time to take a step for freedom of thought and gain
the approval of the EU because its attitude toward Turkey softened
after France’s ban on freedom of expression.
However, the government’s wait-and-see approach has resulted in a
slowing down, and as a result, our criticisms against France weaken.