Turkey Hopes To Get A Date To Start Entry Negotiations With E.U.

COPENHAGEN - Turkey hopes to get a clear date to open full membership negotiations with the European Union (EU) at the Copenhagen summit 43 years after its application to the European Economic Community (EEC) on January 31, 1959.
Ankara Agreement, which was signed by Turkey and EEC on September 12, 1963 after four-year of negotiations and entered into force on December 1, 1964, foresaw accession of Turkey and EEC to Customs Union and preparation of Turkey to full membership step by step.
EEC-Turkey relations have had ups and downs so far since the Ankara Agreement entered into force. There were not any problems in preparatory period foreseen in the Association Agreement, however, there was a fluctuating course in Turkey-EU relations since 1973 at the beginning of Transition Period. 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation, Turkey's decision to freeze its obligations in Additional Protocol, 1980 military intervention, and EU's decision to freeze relations on January 22, 1982 were the highlights of this fluctuation. In the same process, the EU suspended the Fourth Financial Protocol worth of 600 million ECU.
FULL MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
Turkey-EU relations, which stagnated between 1982-1986, started to revive after Turkey-EEC Association Council convened on September 16, 1986. Turkey, which wanted to accelerate this process, submitted its full membership application on April 14, 1987.
EU Commission completed its report on Turkey after two years from Turkey's application. The report which stressed on some economic and social differences between Turkey and the EU said that EU would not take enlargement issue on its agenda before Internal Bazaar Project which EU targeted to complete in 1993.
The Council accepted the EU Commission's plan which includes development of relations with Turkey, customs union, increasing of financial aid and cooperation of industry on basis of strong policy dialogue.
Customs Union went into effect on January 1, 1996 by fulfilling mutual responsibilities within a calendar with the effect of acceleration created in that period.
FROM HELSINKI TO LUXEMBOURG
Luxembourg Summit which was held in December 1997 and which had great importance with respect to the enlargement process disappointed Turkey. Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Greek Cypriot administration were determined as candidate countries for membership to the union at the summit. Turkish public opinion reacted Turkey's not being included in the candidate countries. EU showed violation of human rights, Cyprus issue and Turkish-Greek disagreement as justifications for Turkey's not being included in candidate countries at the summit. Turkey which protested the attitude of EU announced that it suspended its political relations on some issues with EU.
Despite some positive steps taken at the EU's Cardiff, Vienna and Cologne summits, Turkey's candidacy was officially affirmed at the Copenhagen summit in December 1999.
NEW TURNING POINT: START OF NEGOTIATIONS
The problem in Turkey-EU relations in 2000s was the uncertainty about start of accession negotiations with Turkey.
At the summit meeting held in Seville, Spain between June 21-22, 2002, heads of state and government stressed that the reforms that Turkey made were pleasing but those reforms should be implemented. And the uncertainty about start of negotiations continued.
At the extraordinary summit held in Brussels on October 24-25, 2002, it was stressed that Turkey approached accession talks. In the Brussels final statement, it was stressed that Turkey should continue reforms and that a decision on next phase of Turkey's candidacy would be taken at Copenhagen summit in December.
ATTITUDES OF EU COUNTRIES ABOUT SETTING A DATE FOR OPENING OF ACCESSION TALKS WITH TURKEY
Turkey stressed in the contacts with the European Union officials that it was determined about getting a date from the EU for opening of accession talks, and would not accept any other formula, and started the most intense diplomacy traffic of its history to this end.
Noting that it would insist on its view that the EU should set a date for opening of accession talks, Ankara stressed that it was not positive about the proposal of 'conditional date', and pointed out that the solution of 'date for date' was unacceptable.
Although EU representatives have different point of views on these three scenarios, the decision to be taken at Copenhagen Summit will be joint decision of 15 member countries to the EU.
Meanwhile, EU representatives gave another message, and said that Turkey's candidacy was announced at Helsinki Summit in 1999, Turkey would be treated equally with other candidate countries, and that Turkey should fully fulfill Copenhagen criteria.
MEETING BETWEEN CHIRAC AND SCHROEDER
Last week's meeting between President Jacques Chirac of France and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder determined attitude of these two important countries of the EU towards Turkey.
President Chirac said that they would wait for Turkey to fulfill the Copenhagen criteria till December of 2004, and that accession talks would start in July of 2005, if Turkey fulfilled these criteria.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker of Luxembourg said that they shared the same opinion with France and Germany in principle.
BELGIUM PROPOSES AN EARLIER DATE
After France and Germany mentioned the year 2005 for opening of Turkey's EU accession negotiations, Belgian government assumed an attitude to set an earlier date for opening of negotiations with Turkey at Copenhagen summit when compared with the date proposed by Paris and Berlin.
Belgium brought onto agenda the proposal to start negotiations with Turkey for example at the end of 2003 ''if EU was satisfied with the developments in Cyprus question and European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP)'' and ''on condition that political criteria were fulfilled.''
TERM PRESIDENT DENMARK: ''NO DATE''
EU Term President Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who had earlier proposed ''Turkey to announce the reform schedule by a letter before the summit for them to evaluate'', made a statement at the weekend and noted that Turkey would not be given a calendar at Copenhagen summit to start membership negotiations.
Rasmussen said that ''they would not give a calendar in Copenhagen and asked Turkey to submit them a concrete calendar for implementation of reforms.''
Anders Fogh Rasmussen noted that ''this calendar would be very important for a final decision about Turkey and especially how the proposal would be.'' Stating that ''there were five choices'', Rasmussen noted that ''they would make their decision according to them.''
SUPPORT FROM ITALY, GREECE AND BRITAIN
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, who met in Rome after the statement about opening talks with Turkey in 2005'', held a joint press conference that ''they believed that Turkey should be encouraged for reforms in fields of democracy, economy and human rights at Copenhagen summit.''
The two prime ministers said that ''date to start entry talks should be before January 2004'' and gave the message that ''Turkish people would be disappointed with a delay.''
Berlusconi said there couldn't be ''date for date'' and added that British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Marie Aznar agreed with him.
Meanwhile, Simitis said that they believed a date should be given to Turkey before January 2004 but this date would depend on positive steps that Turkey would take on issues like human rights and Copenhagen criteria.
Simitis said, ''we should send a positive message to Turkey. The EU should show that it stands by Turkey. Setting a delayed date for Turkey after January 2004 does not suit us.''
Meanwhile, Blair said that he would continue his lobbying efforts with the aim to set a date for Turkey to show that Islam and democracy could co-exist.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called on the EU member countries to set a date for opening of accession talks with Turkey, adding, ''otherwise, it would mean you make religious discrimination.'' Noting that Turkey had successfully passed the democracy test, Straw warned that if a date would not be given to Turkey despite this, it would mean discrimination of a Muslim country.
Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Aznar said that he would support a date for Turkey and he would continue his efforts to this end while Portugese Prime Minister Jose Barroso said that reforms should be taken into consideration and exclusion of Turkey would not be in favor of the EU.
''DATE FOR DATE''
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder became the first leader who said that Turkey will receive a ''date for date'' on December 12. He said that they are expecting a positive approach from Turkey about Cyprus and ESDP subjects to make progress in membership process. French President Jacques Chirac said that he will exert efforts for a date but the decision will be taken by 15 countries.
Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkanende became the second leader who announced his preference for setting a date for date after Schroeder.
Ireland Prime Minister Bertie Ahern did not have a certain attitude about Turkey's receiving a negotiation date. Ahern supported the idea of acting equally to Turkey with other countries and requested Copenhagen criteria to be fulfilled.
Finland Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen asked for the fulfillment of Copenhagen criteria completely.
Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said that if Turkey proved that it will fulfill Copenhagen criteria, it can receive a date.
FULL SUPPORT FROM UNITED STATES
The United States carried on its lobbying activities about Turkey's receiving a certain date and gave support messages. American officials said that Turkey should receive a certain date and they are holding contacts with various governments.
LAST SCENARIO
Ankara which speeds up the studies for receiving a certain date in Copenhagen hopes to have a negotiation date in Thessaloniki Summit in June 2003 during the term of Greece, if it was not given a date in Copenhagen.

GUL: ''IF AN UNFAIR ATTUTIDE IS ASSUMED AT COPENHAGEN SUMMIT OF THE EU AGAINST TURKEY, THIS WILL BE POLITICAL PREFERENCE OF EUROPEAN LEADERS''
Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Tuesday, ''we will fulfill our responsibilities about the European Union (EU) full membership till the last moment. Later, the decision to be taken by the EU will belong to the EU leaders. If an unfair attitude is assumed at the summit against Turkey, this will be political preference of European leaders.''
Speaking at the group meeting of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Gul said, ''there are some foreign policy issues having time limitation. These are the issues of the EU full membership, the Cyprus question and Iraq. These issues are of great importance.''
''As the government and the AK Party, we have concentrated on these issues. As soon as the results of the general elections were announced, AK Party leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid visits to the EU countries. Now, he is in the United States. His visits aim at protecting interests of Turkey and our people,'' he said.
Gul said that their urgent work was the EU and historical decisions would be made in Copenhagen. This would take its place in the world history of politics as an important incident, Gul noted.
Gul stated that EU's borders would change in Copenhagen and Turkey wanted to take its rightful place in this enlargement process.
Several stages were left behind in Turkey's 40-year EU project, Gul said and reiterated that they wanted Turkey to be given a date to open accession negotiations in Copenhagen.
Drawing the attention that their government had a different stance than the former governments, Gul said that former governments had said that ''they had special conditions'', ''asked the EU to have understanding'' and noted that ''they wanted to join the EU'' without taking into consideration the conditions of that club.
Gul stated that they ''were in favour of knocking the door of the EU after Turkey fulfilled its obligations.''
Within this framework, two reform packages had been submitted to parliament, Gul said.
Gul pointed out that they were in favour of putting into practice new arrangements by seeing the deficiencies in the reform package adopted in August.
Both the government and the opposition had the same understanding, Gul said.
Noting that he met with Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal on Monday, Gul said that they are in a joint agreement, adding that the Parliament will present the first package by working extraordinarily and the studies of Justice Ministry about a third package continue. Gul said that all the arrangements for human rights are for public's favor.
Gul said that he conveyed to EU member countries' foreign ministers and ambassadors that Turkey fulfilled Copenhagen political criteria, adding that Turkey is in better condition than many other countries.
Noting that if Turkey is acted unjustly in Copenhagen, that will be the political preference of European leaders, Gul said that Turkey has a new leadership understanding which puts forth openness, honesty, courage and determination. He added that if Europe claims various cunnings and excuses against Turkey's openness, honesty, courage and determination, that will be their problem.
''Turkey will always protect its honor. Turkey will always be powerful. Turkey-EU relations do not depend on unilateral interest. Turkey's membership will be in favor of not only Turkey but also EU members. Then, the EU will have a more strategic position and play a better role in global developments and be together with a country that has a giant market like Turkey,'' he said.
''Besides, this will be proved: A Turkey of which people are Muslim; a Turkey with which you can be together in democratic, transparent and modern world...Such a Turkey will be a very good example for the global peace, for the Middle East and all Muslim countries. So we have always made this call to the EU: 'Let's serve peace in the world and dialogue among civilizations. Let's undertake important roles together on building of a new world','' he said.
Noting that they would continue fulfilling their responsibilities till the end, Gul added, ''after we fulfil all our responsibilities, the EU's decision will take us away from every kind of responsibility and nobody won't have the right to say, 'you also had had to do this and that'.''