Turkey’s Road Of No Return

MILLIYET- Columnist Hasan Cemal writes on Turkey’s quest for full EU membership. A summary of his column is as follows:
Will Turkey’s road to Europe be one of no return, or will it lose another opportunity like the one missed in 1970s? From that perspective, the year 2002 is as important as any before. Answering the question as to whether Turkey will be able to get a date for accession negotiations from the EU by year’s end is of vital importance. The ball is in our court and time is pressing, but there is no date. We all know that the Ecevit government has homework to do before the end of autumn. Deputy Prime Minister Yilmaz and Foreign Minister Ismail Cem met with EU officials at the beginning of the week. Yilmaz attended the European Convention meetings, and Cem the EU-Turkey Association Council meetings in Luxembourg. The first impressions coming from the negotiations are generally cautious. However there is one common view and that is, before Ankara takes some steps no goal can be reached. The view of the EU officials can be summarized as, everything depends on the performance of the Turkish government. They mention that the reform process is going well but is not satisfactory. There are complaints about the implementations. The Copenhagen criteria are pointed out as the road map. In other words, radio and TV broadcasts in mother tongue and education in mother tongue and the abolition of capital punishment are required. Can the Ecevit government accomplish these? Wouldn’t it be the right policy to abolish capital punishment, which hasn’t even been carried out in years? Doesn’t reason dictate that Kurdish radio and TV be allowed in the age of the Internet? Isn’t it correct policy to lift all the obstacles to teaching Kurdish in a country where selling Kurdish books, magazines, newspapers and cassettes is already free? There is the fear that some will abuse these freedoms, which is an understandable concern. However, as Foreign Minister Cem has said, the correct thing to do is to take whatever measures are necessary to prevent such abuses. Ankara has to stop seeing the Copenhagen criteria as an obstacle on its way to Europe. It can also be said that the climate in the EU is changing. In the past, the mere mention of accession negotiations for Turkey was a taboo. Following the Laeken summit last year, this stance began to change. The psychological barrier was broken. However, we must not forget the Cyprus problem. Even though it may not be a legal obstacle, it stands as political barrier to be lifted on our way to Europe. In brief we can say that Turkey’s hand was strengthened with the Sept. 11 attacks, the situation in Afghanistan and the recent clashes between the Israelis and Palestinians. However, to be complacently satisfied with these and to lazily slack off with regards to the Copenhagen criteria may not bring what we want by the end of this year.

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