BY DERYA SAZAK
MILLITET- The positive mood created by the ‘yes’ votes in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was also reflected in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Germany this week. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said that the promise made 40 years ago to Ankara should be kept, as Turkey is expecting a date to start its European Union accession talks at the end of the year. I spoke yesterday to Ozan Ceyhun, a European Parliament deputy from Germany’s Social Democrats. He said that the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) initiative in Cyprus and the TRNC’s ‘yes’ vote had positively influenced views of Turkey. However this diplomatic move should be followed up by new domestic policy reforms. In particular the case of former deputy Leyla Zana, which recently caused disappointment in the European Council, should be addressed.
Now Turkey has until the end of June. The opposition Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) has a key importance in this respect. A new constitutional package has been presented to Parliament. Will the CHP support it? Ceyhun believes that after its opposing stance on Cyprus, if the CHP took a negative stance on the Zana case its place within European Socialist circles would be shaken. During Erdogan’s recent visit to Germany, we saw that ties between the AKP and Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) have grown stronger than those between the SPD and CHP. Ceyhun also claims that the setback caused recently by France can also be overcome. CHP Parliamentary Group Vice Chair Haluk Koc says that the CHP hasn’t given up on amendments to death penalty legislation and that a commission has been established to examine the proposal on Zana. This duty was given to CHP member Atilla Kart. Let’s see whether the CHP will do its duty on Turkey’s road to the European Union.