The EU's so-called 'to-do' list

BY MURAT YETKIN
RADIKAL- This week’s Turkish-EU Troika meeting focused on not only the ‘disproportionate’ violence by Turkish police towards women protesters on March 6, but also the EU leaders’ demands that Ankara act in line with the recent reforms passed by our Parliament. In short, the EU wants us to conform with its acquis.
What do the EU leaders mean by ‘implementation’ anyway? It’s nothing but a clear demand that Ankara act in line with its new legislation. Brussels is demanding that Ankara take action and make moves in step with its own reforms. It must be disheartening for a government to hear this but still be unable to do anything about it. The EU’s so-called ‘to-do’ list’ is full of issues which are directly under the jurisdiction of the Interior and Justice Ministries.
Earlier this week, the government discussed the new Penal Code and Criminal Procedural Code. Prosecutors and judges should get special training on these issues. There’s nothing much to say about police practices. We all know that our Interior Ministry has little in the way of real power and control over its own organization. If the current negative atmosphere changes, it will be Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul who will be the most relieved, because it’s always the Foreign Ministry which takes the blame the mistakes and missteps of the Interior Ministry on the international stage.
What does this so-called ‘to-do’ list cover?
Our government’s failure to find the perpetrators of a number of murders, particularly in provinces in southeastern Anatolia. * The charges against publisher Ragip Zarakolu, which were filed because he criticized Turkey’s policy towards the Kurds. * The case of Ibrahim Kaboglu and Baskin Oran, which springs from the report on minorities they prepared under the Human Rights Consultation Board. * The case of writer Orhan Pamuk and our government’s failure to investigate death threats against him. * Why Turkey’s Alawis aren’t allowed to establish their own houses of worship. * Why the government doesn’t let the Heybeliada Seminary re-open. Gul’s commitment to call the perpetrators of (what the EU termed) ‘brutality’ to account for their actions against women protesters in Istanbul over the weekend.
Turkey needs to shift its policy on just two of the above subjects, the issues of the seminary and the Alawis. However, the rest are matters of implementation. If the current laws are implemented smoothly, these problems will be easily resolved. Our government should require that prosecutors and judges understand the new legislation backwards and forwards and implement it without any hitches. This is the duty of our government.