Erdogan: Turkey - E.U. Relations Should Not Be Bound To A Single Issue

ANKARA - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that the government believed that Turkey-European Union (EU) relations should not be bound to a single issue, namely Cyprus issue.
Erdogan met with ambassadors of EU Countries to Turkey over a luncheon at Prime Ministry and delivered a speech.
Stating that the government believed that Turkey-EU relations could and should not be bound to a single issue; that is, Cyprus issue, and stated, ''I don't say that it is possible to exclude completely Cyprus issue from our membership.''
Erdogan said that it was not beneficial to establish a written and political link between Turkey's EU membership and solution in Cyprus in European Commission's Progress Report and stated that it was perceived as a harsh approach.
Stating that joint will of Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot sides for a solution to Cyprus issue was an essential, he said, ''both sides should see that solution is to their benefits. If EU says the similar things which it said to Turkish side to Greek Cypriot side as well, then it will support and encourage the process. We think that there is still a possibility for reaching a lasting and fair solution on Cyprus issue till May 2004.''
TURKEY AND EU ARE VERY IMPORTANT FOR EACH OTHER
Stating that he wanted to come together with ambassadors during this period when the world entered a new process, Erdogan said that when the world was living like a ''global family'' on the one side, it faced with new clash risks on the other side.
Erdogan said that there was democracy and prosperity in a part of the world and there was poverty and outdated regimes in the other part of the world and noted that people should focus on those issues.
''The world has faced recently with a risk which is much bigger than risk of clash among states and political blocks during the period of Cold War. I talk about the possibility of a cold war which might erupt among values, civilizations, religions, cultures and identities,'' he noted.
Erdogan said that such a cold war could cause a big uncertainty and disorder in the world and stated that the importance of Turkey which played a role of bridge between east and west appeared once again against a cold war which might erupt.
Stating that the country's adopting EU membership as a strategic target became important once again against developments which lead to a cold war among civilizations, he said that he believed that an important and positive development would take place concerning the period of 2003 and 2004 of chronology of Turkey-EU relations.
Erdogan said that when they look at the history of Republic, they saw that Turkey-EU relations was an issue which attracted the greatest attention.
Stating that European public opinion also focused a lot on Turkey's candidacy and put forward positive-negative, accurate-wrong and objective-subjective views regarding the issue, Erdogan said that it showed that Turkey and the EU were very important for each other.
Prime Minister Erdogan kept on saying, ''I have some concerns whether we could succeeded in explaining this importance to our public opinions. We experienced the latest sample of it after release of the 2003 Progress Report for Turkey and Continuing Enlargement Strategy Paper. Although these two documents were written with a balanced approach except for some parts, the public opinion focused on the part about the Cyprus question. We all have seen that our messages that the EU treated Turkey equally with the other candidates, that the EU was fair and objective towards Turkey and that our membership was supported by the EU member countries on the political levels, were totally ignored. We have seen that opponents of the EU and Turkey could still use such opportunities in an influential way.''
''I want to stress that both sides should pay utmost attention to their statements and assessments in the period till December of 2004. The importance of our co-operation in informing our public opinions and decreasing influence of such prejudices is quite clear. We expect the EU to support us to this end,'' he emphasized.
Noting that they, as the Turkish government, believed that Turkey-the EU relations should not be made dependent on the Cyprus question, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''I do not say that it is possible to abstract the Cyprus question completely from our membership. However, it is a fact that the EU Commission's setting up a written and political connection between Turkey's EU membership process and efforts to find a solution to the Cyprus question, did not yield any positive results. On the contrary, it was considered a tough approach.''
Highlighting importance of joint will of Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot sides in efforts to find a lasting solution, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''both sides should realize that a solution would be beneficial for them. The EU can support and encourage this process by telling the same things which it told the Turkish Cypriot side, to the Greek Cypriot side. We think that prospect of reaching a lasting and fair solution in island till May of 2004 is still valid. We have acted with common-sense in order to take under control negative consequences of the expressions in the Enlargement Strategy Paper. We expect the EU member countries to display the same understanding of responsibility.''
''As you know, the EU Summit Meeting will be held next week. We hope that the EU would scrutinize the connection set up by the EU Commission between Turkey-the EU relations and the Cyprus question in a way to encourage efforts to find a solution to the Cyprus question. The period since November 5 has shown that any contrary situation would further encourage opponents of the EU and circles in Europe opposing Turkey's membership. Turkish public opinion should not be prompted to discuss again whether the membership perspective is real or not. We should not make such a mistake,'' he added.
TURKEY'S FURTHER INTEGRATION WITH THE EU WILL CONSTITUTE THE BEST RESPONSE TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CREATE A COLD WAR AMONG ADHERENTS OF THREE MONOTHEISTIC FAITHS
Erdogan pointed out that recent developments in the region have brought Turkey and the EU more closer, and referred to the danger of Iraq's becoming a bigger source of trouble.
''Latest developments in Iraq has made peace efforts in the Middle East more complicated. Co-operation of international community is required more during this period in order to make stability in the Balkans and the Caucasus permanent,'' he said.
Prime Minister Erdogan kept on saying, ''the situation in Afghanistan and terror activities of Taliban and al-Qaida network have been causing concerns. Turkey and the EU have interests in all these regions.''
Referring to the quadruple suicide attacks in Istanbul in which 57 people were killed and 712 others were wounded, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''these heinous attacks have revealed the stage reached by terrorism in a bitter way. Besides Turkish citizens, British and Jewish societies also suffered losses in these brutal attacks.''
''This time, Turkey was targeted by international terrorism since it has been fighting against religious discrimination and fundamentalism in its region. Because, it was Turkey which has been displaying the modern and progressive aspect of the Islam. It was Turkey which has proved that a country having a mainly Muslim population could be secular and democratic. Turkey has astounding privilege of being the only ring representing Islamic culture in the end of the western geography, and the only ring representing western culture in the end of Islam geography. Therefore, those bombs detonated in Istanbul targeted actually ethnical, religious and cultural tolerance, modernism and intercivilization dialogue. Turkey's further integration with the EU will constitute the best response to those who have been trying to create a cold war among adherents of the three monotheistic faiths. We are pleased to see that this fact has been understood in the EU in a better way. However, it is not sufficient to explain the truths. We should put them into practice in our attitudes and policies,'' he stressed.
''Will the EU act sincerely while eulogizing Turkey's secular and democratic identity on one hand, but leaving Turkey alone in its efforts to preserve this identity on the other? We received many supportive messages in the wake of the Istanbul bombings. However, we felt uneasy when we saw that these messages consisted of only words. I do not want to think that a handful of terrorists could achieve their target of intimidating Europe and its values. On the other hand, I do not have any idea how to comment some developments in these days when we expected Europe to display an influential solidarity with Turkey. I cannot imagine the likely contributions of decisions of the Council of Europe (COE) and the EU to cancel meetings in Turkey to the fight against international terrorism. If the European Parliament proposes us a shallow policy of neighborhood, what kind of a message will it give to fundamentalist circles?'' he said.
Addressing the ambassadors, Erdogan said, ''we should not allow those who want to separate Turkey from west and Islam world from modern civilization to succeed'' and stated that they should not allow those who wanted Europe not to be a union of values and perceive it as a Christian club, either.
Erdogan said that EU did not start to walk on an effective path to fight against terrorism and it also chose the wrongest strategy to protect itself from terrorism and stated that international terrorism could be defeated by effective solidarity. Stating that attacks in Turkey could take place in another country tomorrow, he said that attacks in Turkey made stronger the country's ambition to fight against every sort of terrorism.
Stating that he believed that there would be acts for fight against terrorism, not only words, Erdogan recalled that a southern neighbor of Turkey sent back a group of people who were suspected of having links with attacks in Turkey to the country upon their demand.
Erdogan said that however, some terrorists about whom there was court sentence traveled freely in Europe and stated that this contradiction was a sad situation. Recalling initiatives which had been carried out for PKK/KADEK terrorist organization to be included in EU's list of terrorist organizations for a long time, Erdogan said that this organization abolished itself and started to continue their activities under the name of KONGRA/GEL. He added that no matter what name it had, everyone knew that the issue was very important for Turkey.
Stating that he considered that Turkey's EU membership was a partnership which would be set up on the basis of joint interests, Erdogan said that they were aware of the issue that the partnership with the EU could be possible first with reaching EU standards.
Erdogan noted that they also knew that political criteria should be fulfilled, important steps should be taken in economic field and the capacity of undertaking duties of membership should be developed for Turkey to be a member of the Union.
''All attention focused on political criteria, as they are very important for starting negotiations. However, Turkey and EU relations gained a dimension and content which cannot only be reduced to political criteria or Cyprus issue. Pre-accession strategy toward Turkey is in effect with its all elements. Our relations with EU improved at all levels and in all fields. Besides political dialogue, high-level macro-economic dialogue was also launched. Activities for development of Customs Union are being carried on. Important progresses were recorded in financial cooperation. All of them show that our membership process is progressing on a course that should be. Our target from now on is to be a member of the EU by meeting all priorities,'' he stated.
Erdogan said that they thought that some issues which were shown as if they were big problems in front of Turkey's membership would be solved during the period of negotiations and stated that Turkey's view on EU membership was realistic. Erdogan noted that they did not expect a special treatment and stated that they did not want any difference from other candidate countries, either.
Stating that they only wanted EU to assume an objective attitude to Turkey, he said that European Commission's 2003 Progress Report was generally constructive and balanced excluding some parts of it. He added that they also attached great attention to shortcomings which were put forward in the report.
ACCORDING TO BRITISH MAN OF LETTERS AND POLITICS THOMAS MACAULAY, A PAGE THAT WAS READ CAREFULLY IS BETTER THAN A VOLUME READ RAPIDLY. EUROPE SHOULD NOT ATTEMPT TO PASS OVER TURKEY LIGHTLY
Erdogan said that problems in implementation of reforms, which Turkey had been trying to make in its EU membership process, constituted one of the issues of the government's agenda.
''As you know, legal arrangements about teaching of languages and dialects used by our citizens in their daily lives except for Turkish were published in the Official Gazette. Applications for private Kurdish classes are essentially started to be accepted in Southeastern Anatolia Region. Announcements of local administrations have been published both in Turkish and Kurdish. Also, preparatory works about broadcasting in these languages and dialects have reached an advanced stage. Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTUK) will be put into practice by the Council of Ministers in the coming days. We have been carrying out some additional preparations to strengthen characteristics of the National Security Council (NSC) as a consultative organ. The NSC Secretariat General regulations will be published by the Council of Ministers as a document soon,'' he said.
Prime Minister Erdogan kept on saying, ''I have given directions to the local administrations to take necessary measures to enable our non-Muslim citizens to open their worshipping places. Two weeks ago, a high-level delegation of ministries of foreign and internal affairs paid a visit to Antalya to seek ways of improving worshipping conditions of the population of German and Dutch origin. There is not any difficulty in constructing a new church. Also, a Christian cemetery was established in Alanya. These initiatives are valid for other parts of Turkey. Our fight against torture and maltreatment will continue with the understanding of tolerance. Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek and Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu come together regularly under the structure of Reform Monitoring Group. It should be known that what we have done so far, are the sign of our future activities.''
Prime Minister Erdogan stressed, ''We expect the EU to support the positive atmosphere of 2003 Progress Report on the political level during the EU Summit Meeting to be held between December 12 and 13. We also expect the EU to give a sound message that Turkey has recorded important progress in its EU membership process.''
''As it was indicated in 2003 Enlargement Strategy Paper, efforts to put into practice all these reforms can take time. Turkey has not been living through only a legal change process. Turkey has been experiencing a change in mentality. Like everything universal, political criteria develop and renew itself in the course of time,'' he said.
Prime Minister Erdogan noted, ''we believe that the EU would take into consideration these matters as assessing whether Turkey fulfilled political criteria or not next year. You will act as eye and ear of your countries in their final assessment. I ask you to be in close touch with us in the coming period. Please, do not believe everything you heard about Turkey. Unfortunately, wrongful or deficient assessments are spread in our country like another places in the world. All our institutions including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are open to co-operation with you.''
''According to British man of letters and politics Thomas Macaulay, a page read carefully is better than a volume read rapidly. Europe should not attempt to pass over Turkey lightly. I am quite sure that in each papers which you turn slowly without prejudices, you will find impressive elements,'' he added.

(UK-AÖ) 05.12.2003