BY OZDEMIR INCE
HURRIYET- I decided to follow meetings of the European Parliament and the European Union which are open to the press as much as I can. I reached the conclusion that journalists should follow such meetings based on an observation. For example, a reporter doesn't or can't write that a foreign minister spoke English very tonelessly and his speech was very botched, but an objective one should absolutely write this down, if he has observed this.
For example, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan made two speeches of this kind at the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission and European Parliament's Foreign Relations Commission last week. It seemed the two speeches were giving an answer to the Republican People's Party (CHP) and to an invisible opposition. People asked if a foreign minister could say that the Muslim people living in his country were suffering problems of religious freedom, if the government wasn't responsible for free those who aren't free and if Babacan was talking about an illegal freedom. When the people talked about these issues, I was in the hall, where the speech was made, and trying to understand what European parliamentarians thought. I didn't and couldn't come closer to them and ask them what they thought, but I won't make the same mistake the next time.
I was at the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission's hall, when CHP deputy Onur Oymen said that European Commission for Enlargement Olli Rehn talked about democratic secularism, as if some people ignored the democracy and defended only secularism and that the democracy can't do without secularism in a country like Turkey, where the majority of people are Muslims. I was there again, when CHP deputy Algan Halacodlu asked Rehn if he was confused or trying to confuse Turkey.
All the Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy members of the Joint Parliamentary Commission have fervently praised the report written on Turkey by European Parliament member Ria Oomen-Ruijten. They competed with each other for thanking her and only members from the CHP criticized the report. After I had followed the two-day work, I got the impression that an unsigned coalition has emerged between the Joint Parliamentary Commission's representatives to the European Commission and the Turkish government and the CHP is opposing this coalition. When Joint Parliamentary Commission's representatives to the European Union and other representatives criticized the Turkish government, AKP members said that our government was ready for doing anything they want, but the CHP is acting like a factious!
It's impossible to reflect the news stories on meetings that I mentioned in the way I observed. It wouldn't be in line with the news technique and ethics. Of course, this was something that I knew and then corresponded with my opinions and observations. So I decided to follow such meetings and write down my observations on them. In other words, I won't leave the space for 'legionnaires' anymore. I'll be there as well!