BY ERDAL SAFAK
SABAH- Turkey is now concerned over its European Union membership talks since Brussels decided to postpone entry talks with Croatia due to its failure to arrest a top war crimes suspect. ‘Will this decision be a precedent for other candidate countries?’ our diplomats are now asking. According to our Foreign Ministry, the issue has nothing to do with Turkey’s membership talks.
However, the international community has interpreted the decision as a powerful signal to other would-be EU members that they must fully respect human rights. For example, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said that the EU’s decision is a precedent for Turkey, proving that Brussels would never give any ground on human rights. In addition, Joost Lagendijk, the co-president of the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission, stated that Turkey must take the decision to heart. ‘On Oct. 3, Brussels will examine the list of conditions that it stipulated had to be completed by that date,’ he added. ‘If Ankara fails to fulfill even one of them, Brussels can decide to postpone the country’s accession talks, as in the case of Croatia.’
The final statement of last December’s Brussels summit covered Croatia in three paragraphs. In the first, Brussels praised the country’s preparations for EU membership. In the second, Brussels urged Zagreb to surrender a Croatian former general to the UN war crimes tribunal for trial. The last paragraph underlines that this is the only precondition to start the nation’s accession talks.
What about the paragraphs on Turkey? There are seven articles on our country, from which there seem to be two preconditions: First, the amendment of the Ankara Agreement in line with the EU’s current members. In other words, Ankara must recognize the Greek Cypriot administration. Second, six laws must be approved by the Parliament by Oct. 3.
However, there are also certain sentences that could be interpreted as preconditions as well, depending on the intentions of the reader. For example, Brussels will closely monitor both Turkey’s reform process to ensure the protection of human rights and basic freedoms, and Ankara’s progress on political reforms in line with the Accession Partnership Document.
Moreover, the statement also stressed that Brussels noted the earlier European Parliament decision on Turkey, which lists a number of preconditions for Turkey’s membership talks such as Ankara’s official recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide, opening the Armenian border, reopening the Heybeliada Seminary and ending compulsory religion courses in schools. If the EU leaders said that they noted this EP decision, should we see these as further preconditions or not? As I said, everything hinges on the intentions. If Brussels has good intentions towards Ankara, the only problem we’ll have is the Customs Union. However, if the EU leaders decide to see the summit statement through another, wider-angle lens, then everything will grow much more complicated…