BY SUAT KILIC
VATAN- Twenty-four members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) went to Berlin last week. They sought to ensure that Turkey gets a date to begin its accession talks for EU membership this December, most notably through softening the resistance of opposition parties the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU).
The parliamentary delegation, consisting of our contingent of the Turkish-German Friendship Group, has held over a dozen meetings in four days with the ruling Social Democrats, the Christian Democrats, and the coalition member Greens. The situation in Germany, the most confused member on setting a date for Turkey’s negotiations, looks like so:
German political parties are aware of the most important detail: Setting the date for negotiations with Turkey isn’t the same thing as guaranteeing Turkey membership. Ankara may be a full member in 2014, or it may not. At that time, Turkey may even not want to join the EU, if it considers the EU ineffective, or the EU may get cold feet.
This picture is clear for the Social Democrats and the Greens, the large and small coalition partners. But the opposition Christian Democrats claim that if they set a date for talks, this will inevitably result in Ankara’s EU membership, so they continue to give us the cold shoulder. Yet, what they say is that the Social Democrats are now in power, and so it is that party which will decide on the negotiations.