BY TUFAN TURENC
HURRIYET- Last year both those who favor and oppose Turkey said, ‘Whatever Germany orders, happens. For this reason, Turkey must persuade German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.’ And Schroeder’s statements in Turkey this week show that he’s been persuaded. Actually I didn’t expect such a clear and determined stance from him. If our governing party avoids serious blunders and continues its policies, we will be successful. For me, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. However, nobody in Turkey should say, ‘If we can’t join the EU, it’s not the end of the world. We’ll just pursue other goals.’ We should single-mindedly focus on and work for EU membership. We should try to adopt the standards of European civilization.
However, there’s one problem. As the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government considers the EU a guarantee for its staying in power, it has strived up to this point. It needs to avoid mistakes from now on. Its obsession with religion should be overcome. During his speeches on the EU, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan shouldn’t forget that he’s the leader of a secular country. We should separate Turkey’s status as an Islamic country from its relations with the EU, because recently Europe has reacted against political Islam. This movement started in France and is spreading across the continent. It has nothing to do with Turkey. For this reason, the AKP should advocate this stance because when Europe takes precautions against political Islam, it’s not treating Muslims disrespectfully. It just wants to protect its democracies against fanatical fundamentalists. Schroeder stated that Turkey’s membership negotiations might start in May or June 2005. We all should act very carefully and responsibly so there won’t be any unexpected hurdles on our road to EU membership. We have but one step left to reach our goal.