CUMHURIYET- Columnist Ali Sirmen comments on the name change of the terrorist PKK organisation and the EU’s requests from Turkey. A summary of his column is as follows:
This week, when Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz was meeting with EU officials in Brussels, Foreign Minister Ismail Cem was in Luxembourg at the Turkey-EU Association Council. At the end of the meetings, an optimistic mood was observed on the Turkish side. Deputy Prime Minister Yilmaz predicted that the PKK and DHKP-C would be added to the EU’s terrorist organizations list. However, the PKK had already announced that it would no longer engage in terrorist activities and had entered a new stage as the ‘democratic party’ of the Kurds. The election of Abdullah Ocalan as the group’s chairman didn’t attract anyone’s interest. It was rather interesting to see these two developments happen simultaneously. Some PKK officials asked about the odd synchronicity tried to brush the issue off by saying that it was merely a coincidence and that nobody had planned it that way. However they added that this question should be posed to EU officials. Those who knew how to read the developments didn’t share the optimism prevailing after Yilmaz’s announcement. We shall see whether the organization which reportedly will be included on the list will be restricted only to the PKK, which is said to be left in the past, or notwithstanding the name change, will the new organization be added to the list? Foreign Minister Cem repeated his request for definite a date for accession negotiations during his meetings in Luxembourg. EU officials turned him down. However, while not forgetting to praise recent progress in Turkey, his counterparts pointed out their inadequacy but added that if all went well and Turkey fulfilled its obligations, they could set a date in December. This created some optimism, although nothing had changed in the requests from Turkey. Although the possibility has been mentioned, it doesn’t necessarily follow that a date will actually be set in December. Therefore, there is no need to be angry with the EU officials. If no solid steps are taken for harmonization with the EU, why are we requesting to become a member?
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION