TURKIYE- Columnist Yilmaz Oztuna writes about Turkey’s EU membership bid and the Cyprus issue, and the link between the two. A summary of his column is as follows:
I think that Turkey will have to abandon its insistence that the Cyprus issue and Turkey’s EU membership bid are two separate, independent issues. Why? The reason is quite clear: Neither the US nor the EU share this view. And, more importantly, Turkey’s stance doesn’t reflect the realities of the situation at hand.
We would do ourselves a favor by formulating policies based on the cold, hard facts. The great genius diplomats in the history of Turkish-European relations also share this view. Turkey has numerous self-inflicted wounds from its romantic foreign policies over the last century. The US and the EU are now telling us, in a stern and stentorian tone, that we must reach a settlement on the Cyprus issue and develop closer relations with the EU. Now, you could label such an insistent stance on the Cyprus issue unfair and unjust, and you could even get upset about it. But what you could not do is to, once again, dare to assert that the Cyprus issue and Turkey’s EU membership are completely unrelated issues. For if you did, Turkey would be forced to make tremendous sacrifices.
Of course, the UN’s solution plan will be assessed in terms of the advantages it offers to Turkey. The plan surely contains certain elements contrary to the Turkish side’s interests. But we have to reach a permanent solution by negotiating these, and the plan constitutes a firm basis for that.
Indeed, the last word will be had by the Greek and Turkish Cypriots living on both sides of the island when they hold referendums to decide on the plan. Either side’s rejecting the proposed solution would utterly shatter the dreams of peace. Ankara must work to reduce the inequities of the plan. And it is the task of our political will to make the final decision.
A new world is being created, and those who fail to integrate with it will suffer greatly. After Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, now Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria will join NATO in 2004. If someone claimed 10 years ago that these former Warsaw Pact countries would be NATO members a decade hence, he would no doubt have been consigned to the loony bin.

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