We Will See Who Is Honest

HURRIYET- Columnist Oktay Eksi comments on the recent statement by European Commissioner for Enlargement Gunter Verheugen. A summary of his column is as follows:
As I read a lot of newspapers a day, I sometimes find it difficult to remember the name of the newspaper in which a certain statement was published. This situation is the same. Speaking to a daily yesterday, an academic said that Turkey unexpectedly took great steps and embarrassed the European Union, particularly European Commissioner for Enlargement Gunter Verheugen. It’s a characteristic of Turks to pretend not to be able to succeed, but then create a miracle. Now we will see if Mr. Verheugen and the heads of the EU countries are really as good as their word, modern and honest. To be able to understand this, we will see if they will give a date for the EU accession negotiations. However, we will remember Verheugen’s rude statements, ‘We cannot hide that we want to see the reforms being implemented before giving a date to Turkey (…) We don’t want to see the hoodwinking side of the implementations, but the truth behind them.’ We are aware of the fact that with these words, he is trying to accuse Turkey of trying to deceive the EU countries. However, we also want to see who is the ‘deceiving side.’ The basic criteria of deceiving is whether a promise is kept or not, isn’t it? Turkey promised to implement certain reforms in a certain period of time and it carried out all the political criteria. For example, it abolished the death penalty. It provided the right to learn, teach and broadcast in any language. It amended Article No.159 of the Turkish Penal Code concerning the freedom of expression in accordance with the criteria of the democratic state of law and provided the minority foundations with the rights that were not recognized before. In numerous declarations by Verheugen and the prime ministers and foreign ministers of the EU term president countries -- for example, Spain and Denmark -- stated, ‘The sooner Turkey implements these reforms, the sooner it can take a date for EU accession negotiations,’ didn’t they? Even when Parliament passed the reform laws, Verheugen said, ‘Turkey is on our side from now on,’ didn’t he? He also sent the message of ‘Turkey facilitated our efforts,’ didn’t he? Turkey doesn’t request a date immediately. It only wants to be given a date for negotiations. Speaking to the Polish channel Phoenix last September, Verheugen said, ‘Poland is being treated unfairly. Poland, having a population of nearly 40 million, takes place in this process. Thus, it’s very natural for Poland to suffer certain problems that don’t exist in any other country.’ So why does he treat Poland tolerantly and fairly, while he is intolerant towards Turkey?

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