Once Turkey’s most vocal critics, Europe’s Greens held their parliamentary group meeting in İstanbul on Nov. 1-2 in support of Turkey’s European Union bid after five years of accession negotiations.
Observers in the conference hall noted that EU fatigue is obvious as many participants either refrained from making a comment or expressed disappointment with the EU since Turkey has been kept in the waiting room for so long.
The Greens had a three-day parliamentary group meeting in İstanbul in 2004 supporting Turkey’s membership in the EU and had criticized proposed national referendums on its membership back then. Veteran journalist Hasan Cemal noted that there was so much enthusiasm in the Green’s meeting that people could hardly find seating in the meeting hall back then.
French Green Hélène Flautre, who replaced Joost Lagendijk as the co-chairperson of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, pointed out that over a period of five years of accession negotiations, only 13 out of 35 chapters have been opened, as 12 chapters are blocked because of the Cyprus dispute, and France blocks the opening of five chapters for domestic policy reasons. She added that this means that negotiations have come to a halt “just as Turkey is going through profound political change and discussing its new constitution.”
Political party members, representatives of civil society organizations, academics, journalists and environmental activists gathered for small-scale discussions at the platform provided by the Greens. But the topics were big.
At one panel that debated what the principles of a new constitution should be, speakers engaged in a fierce discussion related to the Sept. 12 referendum on the constitutional amendment package. For example, Professor Süheyl Batum, who was recently appointed secretary-general of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was quite critical of the government’s steps.
He was challenged by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-chairperson of the Greens in the European Parliament (EP), when he asked Batum to explain how they can be critical of the 1982 constitution of the military regime since the CHP never attempted to change it while they were in government.
Flautre also said that the CHP leader had missed an opportunity and ignored his role in consensus-building by not attending the Oct. 29 Republic Day reception hosted by President Abdullah Gül.
They also had a panel with the president of the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, Gianni Buquicchio, who said that it is time for Turkey to abandon the traditional mistrust in its people and their elected representatives and adopt standards of a liberal democracy.
Turkey’s long-standing Kurdish issue also occupied a large space in the meetings. Sabahat Tuncel, deputy from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), expressed their desire to have a brand new constitution. She said they did not want a constitution that was amended several times and did not respond to the problems of the country — that’s why they boycotted the referendum. The Greens had one message to all: Leave the past behind, concentrate on consensus building to make a new constitution and compromise for the future of Turkey instead of bickering.
‘You have sun and wind’
Yes, the Greens of Europe are for environmentally responsible policies, and they dedicated a half day for energy and environmental issues, but they were criticized by some environmental activists for not having enough debate on the issue as Turkey has been in the process of adopting environmentally questionable projects like nuclear energy and big hydropower plants.
The issue came to the fore at a meeting of the Greens with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Wednesday upon his return from China.
“You are coming from China. Don’t make the same mistake that China did,” Cohn-Bendit said, referring to China’s big hydropower plants that have caused environmental problems in the country.
“You have sun and wind. You don’t need nuclear or hydro,” Cohn-Bendit added.
In response, Davutoğlu said that it is easy for Germany or France to speak about renewable energy since they have completed their economic development.
“I prefer renewables, too, but we can’t have democratization without prosperity,” the foreign minister said. Cohn-Bendit was insistent: “Progress is not just big dams. Quality of progress is important.”
‘We agreed on atheism’
In a country that is always full of surprises, the Greens were taken aback when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan agreed to meet with Cohn-Bendit on Monday. Saying that they engaged in a very “frank” conversation, Cohn-Bendit, once the leader of the May 1968 revolt in Paris, told us that they discussed such topics as atheism, sexual orientation, secularism, a new constitution, the Cyprus dispute, Israel and the Kurdish issue.
“I told him that he has to formulate a constitution where everybody is free to believe what he wants or does not want,” Cohn-Bendit said and explained that Erdoğan in turn said that he wants to defend everyone’s freedom of belief as they also agreed on defending the rights of atheists.
“The prime minister said everybody’s rights will be protected in the new constitution,” he said. On the issue of sexual orientation, Cohn-Bendit said he told Erdoğan how Europe handles the issue and that the prime minister did not react.
On Israel, despite cooling of relations with the country Cohn-Bendit stressed Turkey’s role in mediating for peace in the Middle East and demanded that Turkey reconsider continuing its mediation role.
The Greens also promised that they will work to have a majority in the EP for the acceptance of a direct trade regulation to lift the isolation of Turkish Cypriots on the divided island where the Greek part is a member of the EU. In turn, though, he said Turkey should reduce the number of its soldiers on the island.
Both the prime minister’s acceptance of Cohn-Bendit and Davutoğlu’s meeting with the Greens showed that they appreciate their support for Turkey in Europe.
“Even if we disagree, we want to meet with you because we learn from you. You are the most creative group in Europe for Europe’s future,” Davutoğlu told the Greens.
07 November 2010, Sunday
YONCA POYRAZ DOĞAN SUNDAY’S ZAMAN