BY FERAI TINC
HURRIYET- Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal said yesterday that the European Union membership was still Turkey's goal and thus called attention to the issue. Isn't it strange? Is the CHP, which had an anti-European stance recently, turned its direction towards Europe? Baykal added that when the CHP comes into power, it would advance on this road by protecting Turkey's rights. As both the ruling and opposition parties started to use this issue as a tool for domestic politics, the European train was about to take its place at the locomotive museum. Just at that time, CHP freshened Turkey's EU bid. Political parties should take their stance clearly on this issue. The parties who oppose to Europe should do this as well. Only this way, discussions can be held on a correct basis. Otherwise, it would be impossible to prevent analyses which are examples of gossip and ignorance and develop reasonable suggestions for harmonization with the EU.
A difficult, but important summit about the EU started in Brussels yesterday. A great many bargaining is made in order to ensure the operation of the EU and these bargaining also concern Turkey. If Europe can solve its institutional problems, the enlargement would be able to follow a stronger path. Meanwhile, what was the recent situation for us? The Justice and Development Party (AKP) fallowed the EU process with Brussels' support. It thought that even if the negotiations are hindered, we would open negotiation chapters and do what is necessary, and thus adopted the technique of delaying. I would like to ask in how many months Turkey could elect its negotiator. When other members' negotiator and the institutional structure of performing negotiations were clear, the AKP avoided the issue. This situation showed that it did not believe in this issue, didn't it? During the work of harmonization, Turkey should have prepared its middle and long term national program. This was another sign of its lack of belief, but it couldn't announce it to the public, because it was unable to see Europe's own crisis and its possible reflections on Turkey. There is not a single party in Turkey which seriously deals with Turkey's EU bid and which consists of a staff studying Europe and producing politics accordingly. The EU turned into a file which would be found by the parties in front of them when they come into power. In addition, the parties are not courageous enough to neither close it, nor deepen it.
The CHP calculated that it would see this file in front of it one day and thus it's making preparations. I wish this was not the case and the CHP expressed its views on the issue more openly. Relations with the EU cannot be continued on the basis of rights with the understanding that they can tell whatever they want and we would find an answer to them. Speaking at the National School of Administration (ENA), EU Commissioner Olli Rehn reserved half of its words to Turkey the day before. He emphasized that Turkey was important both for Europe's stability and security and its economic future. He said that it would be the new government's duty to show its capacity to harmonize with the EU and accelerate the negotiations. It would be insufficient for those who want to come into power only to say that their goal is EU membership. We have the right to learn why this is the situation and what would be done or not done towards this end."