HURRIYET- Columnist Oktay Eksi writes on the recent speech delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli at the praliamentary group meeting of his Nationalist Action Party (MHP). A summary of his column is as follows:
Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli, as is the custom today, began his speech by congratulating the Turkish football team. However, the main issue he discussed in his speech was Turkey’s relations with the EU. We have to state that on some of the criticisms he directed at the EU, we completely share his views. For example, we share his reactions to the words of Joost Langendjik, Dutch co-chairman of the European Joint Parliamentary Group which forms a bridge between Turkish and European Parliament, in a statement to the press following official talks when he had the nerve to say that Turkey had to enter a dialogue with the PKK and if this wasn’t done, none of the Copenhagen criteria would be considered fulfilled. In the same vein, the European Parliament’s frequently taking absurd decisions such as the one calling on us to recognize the so-called Armenian genocide is another issue of the same kind. However, this is not surprising. The same stance can be seen in the policies towards other countries. The EU is a democratic society. There will be people in favor of such causes and those against them. The important thing is not what is said but the decisions taken afterwards. These decisions are not taken by fools like Mr. Langendjik, nor are the decisions of the European Parliament binding. After all these are said and done with, when Turkey is included among the candidate countries during the Helsinki summit everything will fall into place. Therefore, Mr. Bahceli should not formulate his party’s policies fearing the biased policies of the European Union or that they may impose new conditions which will Turkey dearly. Furthermore, the argument stating that we should comply with the Copenhagen criteria after the EU has given us a date for accession negotiations is simply indefensible. In that case, the question that if they are ready to comply with these criteria, why not now, is left unanswered. Probably Mr. Bahceli explained his views most clearly to Ertugrul Ozkok, the editor-in-chief of Hurriyet. ‘They are asking me to act like a statesman not chairman of a party... However, others (meaning Mesut Yilmaz) will use the EU issue for the benefit of their own party and I will be left to act as a politician above parties. Is this politics?’ In other words, this means that he is putting the interests of his party above all.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION