MILLIYET- Columnist Derya Sazak comments on his meeting with a social democratic member of the European Parliament. A summary of his column is as follows:
I met recently in Berlin with Ozan Ceyhun, a social democratic member of the European Parliament and an ethnic Turk. Ceyhun is hopeful about the upcoming Copenhagen summit. He spoke with German Prime Minister Gerhard Schroeder before Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent visit to Germany and received positive messages. Schroeder said that during the summit set to convene on Dec. 12, ‘a date for a date’ will be given to Turkey for it to start its European Union membership negotiations. Schroeder’s strong signal, which he expressed during President Ahmet Necdet Sezer’s visit to Berlin, amounts to the same thing. Ceyhun is a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which established the government with the Greens in Germany, and he has close relationships with both Schroeder and the coalition leaders. The votes that buoyed up the social democrats in Germany’s last elections came largely from its Turkish citizens. Sensitivities concerning foreigners in the country people and the policy of supporting Turkey’s EU candidacy played a key role in terms of nearly half a million Turkish people voting for the SDP. The Christian Democrats lost the elections by only the slim margin of 6,500 votes. However, the balance of power and opposition in Germany is on a knife-edge. Elections will be held in Hessen and Lower Saxony in February. Economic problems and unemployment in Germany are weighing on Schroeder’s administration. According to Ceyhun, losing elections in these two states would create new difficulties for the government in terms of passing bills in Parliament, and therefore the SPD-Greens partnership might come to an end and a large coalition between the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats might come together. There are 35,000 Turkish voters in Hessen and 24,000 in Lower Saxony. During his tour of Europe, in Berlin, Erdogan said, ‘Nobody but Germany is against giving Turkey a timetable,’ and these words created some uneasiness on Schroeder’s side. Ceyhun thinks that the possible effects of such words on the elections are much more than people think. When he visited Ankara, he told Prime Minister Abdullah Gul about this situation because the problem isn’t limited to getting a date at the Copenhagen summit. Turkey should also start membership negotiations before 10 countries become EU members in May 2004. Ceyhun hopes that there won’t be any erosion of the Schroeder government’s coalition. If Germany acts constructively, then France’s resistance will be worn away. Turkey might start its full membership negotiations with the EU during the its Thessalonica summit next year or in the spring of 2004. When I told Ceyhun of my negative impressions of the EU Parliament in Brussels, Ceyhun said, ‘The decision out of Copenhagen will be made in Turkey’s favor’.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION