Is Harmony Among Leaders Enough?

MILLIYET- Columnist Sami Kohen writes on Turkey’s relations with the EU and President Sezer’s decision to meet with the political party leaders on the issue. A summary of his column is as follows:
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer’s decision to convene a meeting with the leaders of all political party leaders regarding the EU process is a promising development coming after the uncertainty and concern created by the recent leaders’ summit. In fact, the president using his consitutional powers is the best way to clear this impasse. This initiative demonstrates the significance the president attaches to the lifting of certain obstacles, such as abolishing capital punishment and broadcasting in Kurdish, which stand in our way of beginning accession negotiations with the EU. The illness of the prime minister, Deputy Prime Minister Bahceli’s visit to China, rumors regarding early general elections, and the summer recess of Parliament, which needs to pass certain amendments, all generate the risk of our falling behind the EU calendar. However, Turkey has no time to lose. Next month the Seville summit will take place. If we don’t consider it to be the last stop, in October the progress report concerning Turkey will be published. Then will come the Copenhagen summit. Legal changes have to be made on the above-mentioned issues before then. This is not possible unless there is harmony among the political parties, and especially among the coalition partners. Therefore, the timing of the president’s decision to intervene is correct. It came out after the recent leaders’ summit that some politicians still believe Turkey is not well understood in the EU. It is being claimed that Turkey’s sensitivities regarding capital punishment and broadcasting in Kurdish should be better expressed to the EU and that these issues should be ‘negotiated’ with the EU. But, in fact, there can be no negotiation or bargaining with the EU regarding political criteria. All conditions are applied to all candidates without any discrimination. Moreover, accession negotiations with all the other candidates started after it was established that they had complied with certain criteria. It cannot be expected that the EU should relinquish some of its demands due to the ‘special circumstances’ in the applicant country. However the candidate country has to fulfill what is expected from it. Therefore, the dispute among the coalition partners regarding the above-mentioned reforms should be solved by taking the EU standards into consideration. The important thing is being in harmony with the EU, not harmony among our politicians. Another point which should be taken into account is that the EU is evaluating other factors in addition to the constitutional changes on these subjects. There is no guarantee that accession negotiations will begin even if these issues are solved. The EU officials are taking the implementations into consideration as well. It will examine whether the new laws passed are in harmony with the EU criteria. Therefore, it is wrong to index the issue of harmony with the EU to only three or four subjects. The political reforms which should be implemented in line with the National Programme should be taken as a whole.

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