Which Europe?

MILLIYET- Columnist Taha Akyol comments on the European Commission’s Progress Report on Turkey. A summary of his column is as follows:
While everybody was wrapped in anticipation waiting for the publication of the European Commission’s Progress Report on Turkey, I called Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz yesterday afternoon. ‘The report is far from meeting our expectations,’ he told me. ‘It’s like a song dominated by dark chords.’ The most striking expressions in the report were ‘renegotiating the Accession Partnership Document with Turkey’ and ‘drawing a new road map.’ Are we then going all the way back to square one? ‘They want to draw out the process! This is unfair,’ Yilmaz complained. ‘Yes, we have certain shortcomings, but the report exaggerated these. Other countries too had deficiencies, but these deficiencies didn’t block their membership bids.’ Yilmaz pointed out the EU’s accession aid to Turkey would be increased to 350 million euros in 2006, contrasted with 950 million euros to Poland and 650 million to Romania. ‘This sum isn’t very important to us directly, but it’s important in terms of demonstrating the EU’s intent,’ he added.
Of course, the game isn’t over yet! The EU governments might adopt a more friendly approach with a ‘political’ strategy at the EU’s Copenhagen summit in December. ‘The EU’s decision will either accelerate the process or make it worse,’ Yilmaz said. ‘The worst possibility is if Turkey were offered a date but only on the condition that we “correct our deficiencies.” Any decision short of getting a bona fide date would send out shockwaves.’ I understand him to mean that Turkey will either get much closer to Europe or else put it at a distance. This report with ‘dark chords’ will strengthen the common conviction of the Turkish public that Europe is insisting on its own requests but refusing to open its membership door, and this will affect our elections to some extent.
Turkey is in fact very experienced in its relations with Europe. Through Grand Vizier Ali Pasha’s reforms and diplomatic skill, the Ottoman Empire signed an agreement on participating in international law and territorial integrity in 1856 in Paris. However, just after this agreement was signed, the European powers proceeded to try to divide and divvy up the Ottoman Empire amongst themselves and force its capitulation. Is today’s Europe any different? Of course the age of imperialism is over and now we’re in the age of globalization. However, certainly we’re facing a narcissistic Europe which employs double standards. Changing the glibly-inserted clause ‘there are 9,000 criminals of thought in Turkey’s prison’ to ‘a few thousand criminals of thought’ only through Ankara’s fierce protests, and failing to specify exactly which crimes are considered crimes of thought, are typical indicators of this. Of course we have certain shortcomings. The judiciary hasn’t sufficiently adopted the rule of law and our bureaucracy has yet to fully adopt a philosophy of ‘impartial public service.’ If Europe really has good will, it will give a date to Turkey for membership negotiations and encourage Turkey’s development rather than considering these obstacles. Turkey shouldn’t let itself be sidetracked; it should continue its advance towards this goal, and Europe should also act with the full awareness that the Copenhagen summit will be a test for itself both political and moral.

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