HURRIYET- Columnist Muharrem Sarikaya writes on Turkish-EU relations. A summary of his column is as follows:
Working on an issue to the end but not being able to finish it is a phenomenon frequently seen in Turkey. The same thing can be said for the Turkish football team’s success in the World Cup and Turkey’s relations with the EU. During the visit to Brussels of a delegation from the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchange (TOBB), a question posed by one of its counterparts pointed to the same issue. ‘You have reached an important phase. You even fulfilled the heavy conditions of the Customs Union. Why are you not taking one more step forwards?’ The reply to the question was interesting, ‘Our situation is special....’ During the two-day talks, the answer coming from the EU officials to this reply was not much different. ‘Stop haggling over the issues. Express yourself clearly.’ Even though Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz and State Minister Tunca Toskay had come to Brussels with TOBB members to lobby for the EU, the government was not clear in its stand. In all his statements, Deputy Prime Minister Yilmaz stressed that to get a date for the beginning of accession negotiations the death penalty should be abolished, and the issue of teaching and broadcasting in mother tongues should be solved immediately. On the other hand, Toskay’s view may be summarized as, ‘First give us the negotiation date, let Turkey enter into decision-making mechanisms and then we shall take the necessary steps while the process is going on.’ If these were not done, Toskay said the Customs Union and trade relations with the EU would be jeopardized. On the other hand, Yilmaz said he believed that Turkey got certain benefits from the Customs Union. He added that the death penalty and mother tongue issues could be solved by calling the Parliament for an extraordinary meeting. Even though Ankara is focused on the death penalty and mother tongue, matters Brussels attaches the most importance to is Cyprus. As the analysts of the issue have stated, if the death penalty and mother tongue problems constitute a barrier in front of Turkey joining the EU around 35%, disagreement on a Cyprus solution constitutes a barrier of 65% for the EU. If no agreement is reached in Cyprus before December, this rate will exceed 80%. TOBB members talked of nothing but the relations with the EU for two days, and stated that necessary steps should be taken immediately. How this could be done brought the issue of a deadlock before them. The disagreement within the government was proving unsolvable, the government would not resign or a new one be formed, and the solutions suggested from abroad are not trusted. Therefore the result does not change.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION