Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and State Minister Egemen Bağış, the chief negotiator for EU talks, will represent Turkey in the meeting of the Association Council, the highest decision-making organ connecting Turkey and the European bloc.
EU officials are expected to praise changes in civilian-military relations, the recent constitutional amendments and judicial reform, Turkey’s active foreign policy and its management of its economy, while criticizing Ankara for not opening its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot vessels and planes, for not meeting expectations with its democratic initiatives and for not raising freedom of expression standards.
The rights of religious minorities in Turkey is another subject expected to draw criticism from the European body, which is also concerned over recent arrests of journalists in Turkey, the seizure of a draft book and bans on various websites.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was asked a number of questions on similar issues – including Turkey’s electoral threshold, minority rights and arrested journalists – during a Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, or PACE, meeting in Strasbourg on Wednesday. A French parliamentarian drew a sharp response from Erdoğan in PACE when she asked him a question about the protection of minorities in Turkey.
EU officials are expected to present to Turkish officials a common stance document in which they note Turkey’s progress in civilian oversight of security forces, giving several legal arrangements as an example. These arrangements include restricting the field of duty of military judges, paving the way for appeal of Supreme Military Council, or YAŞ, decisions and trial of military officers by civilian courts.
The document will also ask high-ranking military officers to stop making statements on issues beyond their scope of responsibility, such as some internal and external political developments. The common stance document defines the constitutional amendments Turkey adopted Sept. 12, 2010, as a positive step, and calls on the country to make upcoming further amendments with broad participation, dialogue and compromise.
The document will note that Turkey has started to pursue a more active foreign policy and define the country as a significant regional actor, recommending Ankara be in close coordination with the European Union. It will say if Turkey and the EU take joint action, energy safety can be improved, regional clashes solved and ethnic and religious divisions prevented.
The document will describe Turkey’s 8.9 percent of growth in 2010 as impressive. On the negative side, Turkish executives are expected to bring up the EU’s stance on visa procedures for Turks, as well as the political obstacles before accession negotiations.
Turkish executives will express their disappointment that EU member states do not authorize the Commission to carry out negotiations on visa removal. Davutoğlu and Bağış will draw attention to the decisions of the European Court of Justice that Turkish citizens can travel through Europe without visas and stress the EU’s inability to lift visa procedures for Turkey, which is conducting accession talks and is a member of the Customs Union.
Ankara is expected to say that the additional protocol to the Ankara Agreement regarding opening of ports is “interpreted differently,” and notes that goods of 27 EU member states, including the Greek Cypriot administration, enter Turkey within the scope of the Customs Union while the EU has not implemented direct trade regulation regarding Turkish Cyprus.
EU member states decided in 2006 not to open eight chapters in Turkey’s accession negotiations and suspended the conclusion of the remaining chapters in process on the grounds that Turkey has failed to fulfill its responsibilities stemming from the “Additional Protocol” to the Association Agreement, which stipulates Turkey to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot ships and planes.
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