SABAH- Columnist Sedat Sertoglu writes on the speech Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli made yesterday. A summary of his column is as follows:
Deputy Prime Minister and Nationalist Action Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli issued messages to the Cankaya summit which will be held in three days. In brief, he said that the MHP had not changed its stance regarding capital punishment and broadcasting in mother tongues and would not do so. The media and the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TUSIAD) were among the institutions he criticized. However, we believe that anger won’t lead to any solutions to the issues and in fact will leave them unsolved. In this climate it would be wrong to expect a promising joint decision to come out from the Cankaya summit. This in turn may come to mean that Turkey’s EU membership may be stalled for some years to come. Following Bahceli’s declaration, the opposition leaders will begin to toughen on these two issues. Getting to power is more important for them than the wishes of 80% of the people. Can President Sezer take this issue to a referendum? This may the last hope. Then everyone will come out openly and explain their views to the public. The people will think about it and vote for it in the end. No one can oppose such a decision. In fact, I do not believe that people are really aware of the pluses and minuses of membership in the EU. I wonder what the opposition party leaders who have defended Turkey’s EU bid up to now will do in such a situation. Will they continue to do so or seem to be in support of leaving everything as it is, taking the votes that could go to Bahceli into consideration? In fact, Turkey’s not being admitted to the EU is tantamount to snatching away the future of the country and its younger generations. For over 30 years we have been talking about entering the EU. But we have not completed our homework. Talking about issues is not enough.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION