BY YILMAZ OZTUNA
TURKIYE- The European Commission has started to prepare its progress report on Turkey. According to this report set to be issued on Oct. 6, the 25 EU member countries will state that membership negotiations might begin with Turkey after December and even give an exact date for them to start. The EU will accept that Turkey is ready for democracy in terms of the Copenhagen criteria and that it’s time to pass to full membership negotiations. The most influential people in Europe said that we’ve quickly and determinedly arranged for modern democratic norms. However, the document will reportedly say that we have some shortcomings in terms of practice which can be categorized under three headings.
For me, the most important of these are certain restrictions on our Christian citizens. Europeans are sensitive about this issue. Most of these restrictions didn’t exist during the Ottoman era, or even under Ataturk. For this reason, ending them is appropriate to our national policy of tolerance. As the voice of those who oppose tolerance is still loud, we have been unable to convince the Turkish people about the benefits of educating Orthodox priests not abroad, but in Heybeli in Istanbul. In addition, Greece should end restrictions on Turkish schools in western Thrace. The second shortcoming is the harsh treatment of our police. They should act more humanely. The third concerns how our judicial branch works. Besides its being an EU issue, this problem should be solved immediately. What will happen if our justice system doesn’t work properly?