End Of The Crisis

BY YILMAZ OZTUNA
The crisis which spooked both Turkey and the EU has ended. Parliament will convene on Sunday and pass a new Turkish Penal Code (TCK), one excluding the adultery issue. Yesterday EU Commissioner for Enlargement Guenter Verheugen announced clearly that we have fulfilled the Copenhagen criteria. Turkey has been rescued from the stain of having a second-class democracy. We will be happier in two weeks, [when the EU Commission report on Turkey is released], but our responsibilities will grow. We also will be careful and not act clumsily. This time Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s intelligence and ability, together with Europe’s common sense, saved us.
The most important issue after the EU is Iraq, that is, our place in the US’ Greater Middle East Initiative. Although the US is our strategic ally, we are far away from its strategy. We will have accession talks with the EU next year, and the Middle East’s borders will expand. Turkey’s historical fate is that it’s a European country which can easily extend into Asia.