HURRIYET- Columnist Muharrem Sarikaya comments on the words of Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz saying that Turkey must solve the Cyprus issue before December. A summary of his column is as follows:
We are in Brussels together with the chairmen of all chambers and commodities exchanges coming from every corner of Turkey. The chairmen took the stand one by one. Even though Turkish Union of Chambers and Stock Exchanges (TOBB) Chairman Rifat Hisarciklioglu repeatedly told them not to talk about their regional problems as they could mention these to the Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz and State Minister Tunca Toskay, they were all united on one issue. ‘Pass the reform laws necessary to enter the EU. An opposition party which doesn’t support these reforms will forever be left in the opposition. If it is one of the coalition parties, it won’t ever come to power again.’ Their timing was as important as the gist of their words. They were making this call only half an hour after a militant from the terrorist DHKP-C terrorist organization recently taken onto the EU’s list of terrorist organizations, had threatened Yilmaz with death. The regions the calls were made from were also noteworthy. They come from Igdir in the east, Kusadasi and Manisa from the western parts of Turkey. Following them, Mesut Yilmaz took the stand. He was pleased with the stand of the TOBB which had stayed in the background concerning the EU. Yilmaz noted the example given by Chairman Hisarciklioglu that the Spanish Chamber and Stock Exchanges Union had been 70% influential in their country’s membership to the EU. Yilmaz then went on to say that as EU faced its own history and took steps towards the future, Turkey had not been able to face its own history. He said, ‘For two centuries we have been unable to get into step with the West although we would like to adopt Western ways. Commemorating Mehmet the Conqueror when we discuss history, we forget that we have missed the 18th and 19th centuries... Ataturk was great because although he won the wars against the West, he stated that Turkey’s future lay in the West.’ In a face-to-face conversation, we reminded Yilmaz that leading EU officials in Brussels had stated that Turkey was the intransigent party in Cyprus and that it had to contribute to a solution to the problem. Yilmaz replied that they were being unfair to TRNC President Denktas. He added that the April 29 document was an important initiative. It brought solutions to the problem and contributed to taking great strides towards an agreement. No one could ignore this. He stated that he had stressed these points to the high-ranking officials in the EU and added that if no solution is found to the Cyprus problem before December, a solution would be in jeopardy and this would leave Turkey in a tight spot. The largest nongovernmental organization (NGO) in Turkey, the TOBB, which had stayed silent on the issue until today, took an important step in Brussels. Taking the trades union chairmen and other NGOs to its side, the TOBB is sending a message to Ankara from Brussels to open the EU path.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION