Just As Everything Was Going Well

MILLIYET- Columnist Sami Kohen writes on recent developments regarding Turkey's relations with the EU. A summary of his column is as follows:
Everything was going well... At the Laeken EU summit it was stated that due to Turkey's recent initiatives, the prospect of opening accession negotiations was going forward. Turkey was being granted the right to participate in a convention to shape the future of Europe. Just the same time, a serious negotiation process had started on Cyprus and the Turkish side's initiative on the issue was appreciated by the international community. The Turkish-Greek dialogue is improving, and the problems regarding the Aegean are being handled at last. But now, It is very unfortunate to see certain negative developments which could reflect adversely on Turkey's improving image. One of these is the 'mini-democracy' package and the hitches coming out regarding the harmonization laws. The EU has officially expressed its concern and displeasure over the harmonization laws. First, the three representatives of the EU countries in Ankara conveyed their opinions orally to the prime minister and then in a written statement to the Foreign Ministry. The EU expects our harmonization laws to be in compliance with the main EU criteria. However, although the laws' text coming from the parliamentary Justice Commission is supposedly based on an agreement between the coalition parners, it is far from complying with the EU criteria. Later, it was noted that there was no accord between the coalition partners and that furthermore there was no agreement between the Secretairat General For EU Affairs and the Foreign Ministry. The Secretariat General, which made the first studies on the issue, was surprised to see the text coming out of the commission. No one informed their experts on the issue of the changes in the draft while it went through various stages. The EU ambassadors stressed three points: first, finalizing the harmonization laws as they now stand won't meet the expectations of the EU. Secondly, they reminded us that the laws themselves are as important as their implementation. That is to say, the 'spirit' of the amendments to the Penal Code, or the Anti-Terror law should be taken into consideration by all those concerned, such as judges, prosecutors, security forces, etc. In other words, the implementation of the law must be in accordance with these changes. If the mini-democracy laws become a real harmonization package in Parliament, there will be no problem. However, if there is insistence on keeping the current text, the start of accession negotiations will be further delayed. What is more, Turkey's recently polished image would be rudely tarnished. However, the most important issue here is that the hopes and expectations of the Turkish people for democratization and modernization would be shattered.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION