BY DERYA SAZAK
MILLIYET- Last week Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul left the most recent meeting of the Turkish-EU Partnership Council in Brussels in an optimistic mood, saying, ‘We’ve crossed the critical threshold with our latest Constitutional amendments. Now we’re knocking on the doors. It’s Turkey’s future. We won’t allow anybody to turn back our EU membership process.’ Feeling the pulse of Brussels, CPS Strategy and Advisory Group Chairman Tulu Gumustekin said that the speed of Turkey’s reforms was surpassing the EU’s calculations. So Turkey is quicker than the EU’s timetable. ‘The level of integration between Turkey and the EU shows that our relations are pushing the limits of the 1964 framework,’ said Gumustekin. ‘Now the harmonization efforts need a more serious platform. If negotiations mean time and conditions for Turkey’s harmonization to the acquis communitaire, this Partnership Council resolution indicates a goal for the entire harmonization to end before the beginning of negotiations.’
Turkey has taken and continues to take such serious steps as abolishing State Security Courts (DGMs) and the modernization of both the Constitution and the role of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). Not a single government would accept such comprehensive reforms if it sought to escape their practice. The EU can’t ignore the real dynamism of our steps. The reward for these reforms should not be mere compliments, but accepting that Turkey has fulfilled the Copenhagen criteria. The EU should make a decision towards developing its relations with Turkey, establishing its political will that the EU Commission should sit at the accession negotiating table. Besides the Copenhagen criteria, Ankara has also taken steps on certain issues such as Cyprus and the Aegean. The EU’s hesitation to start membership negotiations with Turkey would mean nothing but the violation of the partnership signed 40 years ago. The historic threshold lies at the end of this year.