BY FERAI TINC
HURRIYET- Some people are interpreting our ‘conditional’ date of EU membership talks as not a bona fide date. Everybody can think what they want. However, I’d like to remind you of something. Turkey and Croatia became official candidates for full membership by getting dates for membership talks during last week’s EU summit. Both starting dates are conditional. The EU wants Croatia to deliver Gen. Ante Gotovina to the International War Crimes Tribunal because he is the commander charged with ‘ethnically cleansing’ the Krajina region where Serbs live. He spent his youth as a French legionnaire in Africa and then returned to Croatia and joined the army during the breakup of Yugoslavia. He became the commander of Operation Storm, the bloodiest offensive of Croatian forces. The International War Crimes Tribunal believes Gotovina is responsible for massacring 150 Serbs, forcing 150,000 Serbs to leave their homes, and razing seven Serbian towns to the ground. One could firstly think that this is nothing compared to the unfair conditions stipulated against us, because they can deliver him to the tribunal and the problem is solved. However, this isn’t easy for Croatia because Gen. Gotovina is seen as a national hero. This is the precondition for Croatia to start its membership talks in March.
The unfair situation against Turkey is that Cyprus is being put forth under the ‘political dialogue criteria,’ even though the EU committed to just the opposite during the Helsinki summit. In addition, Article 23 concerning the ‘framework of talks’ saying that talks with new candidates would be different from previous ones was applied not on Croatia, but on us. However, Turkey is among the first term candidates of the fifth wave of enlargement. We shouldn’t forget that we’re very different from other candidates and we shouldn’t stop pushing for rectification of unfair and unequal situations. In addition, certain circles are aware of these injustices. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) enthusiastically supported reforms and worked hard to establish dialogue with Europe before Dec. 17. This work should continue. The NGOs should consider the European perspective in order to understand the atmosphere in Europe for swaying public opinion and lobbies. Firstly, we should move to find a fair solution to the Cyprus issue without delay. One of our best assets is this sense of mobilization. The name of this is the mobilization of democracy and quality of life.