STAR- Columnist Zeynep Gurcanli writes on Turkey’s EU membership bid, this month’s Copenhagen summit and the Cyprus issue. A summary of her column is as follows:
Promoting Turkey’s EU membership bid in the leadup to this month’s Copenhagen summit, three of our leaders -- President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, in his contacts with European leaders, ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during his tour of European Union capitals, and opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal, during his meeting with the Party of European Socialists (PES) -- all spoke with one voice: ‘The EU should extend a date for Turkey for its accession talks during the Copenhagen summit. Otherwise...’
Following this ‘otherwise,’ each leader made different remarks. Sezer said: ‘The current pro-EU stance in Turkey could lose much of the wind from its sails.’ Erdogan warned: ‘Muslim countries have their eyes on the EU. The EU’s failing to give Turkey a date would create the impression that the EU is an institution based on religion.’ Baykal stressed: ‘This would be a double standard. The very foundations upon which the EU is built could be deeply shaken.’
Even so it’s quite unlikely that the EU will extend a date at the Copenhagen summit. But neither it will exclude Turkey altogether. EU officials are now working on a new formula for Turkey’s membership. The new proposal, which might be called ‘Helsinki plus,’ projects a ‘diplomatic status’ for Turkey. Accordingly, Turkey will join the EU when it fully complies with the political criteria. Moreover, the new formula will break with statements made by certain EP members that a country’s candidacy should be revoked if it proves incapable of abiding by the membership conditions in ‘due time.’ However, it will not extend an exact date for Turkey’s full membership.
Turkey’s membership hinges on the Cyprus issue. With the new proposal, once more it will all boil down to reaching a settlement on the island. Indeed, Turkey’s candidacy won’t be the EU’s sole topic at the Copenhagen summit. The Union will decide on the future of 12 other candidate countries as well, and will greenlight 10 of them for full membership to the Union in 2004, including Greek Cyprus. In no way could the Greek Cypriot administration be left out of these 10 countries, as Greece is already a member country and among those approving the current enlargement. And there’s nothing Turkey can do to block the Greek Cypriots from joining the EU. The wisest move for Turkey right now would be to try to figure out a permanent solution for the Cyprus issue before 2004 and to carry the Turkish Cypriots into the EU with an equal status as the Greek side.
In a matter of days the Cyprus issue will be tensely discussed in both European capitals and Ankara. And those discussions will deeply affect both Turkey’s EU alignment and our future itself.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION