BY MUHARREM SARIKAYA
SABAH- Istanbul will host three important meetings this month, the most important being the NATO summit to be attended by US President George W. Bush among others. Another is the Organization for Islamic Conference (OIC) foreign ministers meeting where a new OIC secretary general will be selected. Turkey and Bangladesh have the strongest candidates. Finally there is the Socialist International. When I spoke to opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal yesterday, he was disappointed because he believes nobody is taking seriously his efforts for Turkey to receive a date for EU membership talks. Baykal said that the CHP wasn’t standing idle on the path to the EU and stated that leaders of parties within European governments would participate at the Socialist International meeting. Human rights, democracy and developments in Iraq and the Middle East will on the agenda of this meeting. For Baykal, it’s an important stage because this meeting will be held in Istanbul in a period of growing socialist strength compared to conservatives and Christian democrats.
These three meetings are considered a platform to push for a date for negotiations, and more efforts will be made by Parliament. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) wants Parliament to work until mid-July to pass nearly 60 EU harmonization laws. ‘There is a well-intentioned approach on this issue,’ said Baykal. ‘If certain laws have to be enacted, we will support them.’ Instead of discussing and voting on each article to be amended, amendments proposed for the same law will be bundled as 15 articles and voted on as a whole. However, here the AKP plans to enact such laws as a new Turkish Penal Code, anti-terrorism measures, local administration and public reform, as well as EU harmonization in similar ways.