BY MUSTAFA BALBAY
CUMHURIYET- The news from the EU isn’t encouraging at all. Here’s the dilemma: The EU constantly delays its responsibilities toward Turkey, while asking Turkey to do whatever it asks immediately and without question.
Apparently, this dilemma will endure as long as our government fails to take an appropriate stand against it.
Remarks made by the EU and Turkey both underline this double standard chanted by every EU official visiting Turkey. There’s also been an evident change in European governments’ policies against Turkey.
One example of this change is our disagreement with Germany on ‘the Armenian issue.’ An elderly German priest named Johannes Lepsius claims that he witnessed the Armenian genocide. His house is now being used as a propaganda center. Angela Merkel, leader of the German opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has presented a resolution to the Federal Parliament that can be summarized as follows:
'During the Ottoman reign, Armenians were victims of a large-scale genocide through which 1.2-1.5 million Armenians lost their lives. As the legal successor of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey denies that such an event happened. Turkey must show unconditional assent on this issue.’
German Ambassador to Ankara Wolf-Ruthart Born was recently summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry and told that such initiatives would have a negative effect on bilateral relations.
When I called Mehmet Ali Irtemcelik, Turkey’s Ambassador to Berlin, he gave me a brief and clear explanation of the matter:
‘I’m afraid that the damage this resolution could cause will be wide, deep and irreparable. We hope they will soon come to see this, and we’re working to make this happen.’
In light of these recent events, the state of Turkey’s EU membership process could be summed up like this: Neither grant full membership to Turkey, nor allow it to go anywhere else.