COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Turkey will continue preparations for EU accession and will be ready to become a member in 2014, Ankara’s chief negotiator for talks with the EU Egemen Bagis said on Tuesday (December 7th). He told journalists accompanying him on a three-day visit to Copenhagen that the country will maintain a patient approach to the accession negotiations while still criticising the EU for applying double standards in Turkey’s case. Specifically, he argued that the country has received prejudicial treatment by some EU member countries, and he expressed dissatisfaction with the blocking of some chapter negotiations due to the Cyprus problem. In Copenhagen, Bagis will be meeting with senior officials and attend several cultural events in a bid to revitalise Turkish-Danish relations. (Zaman – 08/12/10; Hurriyet – 07/12/10)
via Bagis says Turkey ready for EU membership in 2014 (SETimes.com).
Athens called for a EU-Turkey summit after the upcoming Turkish general elections next year, aimed at reviving the accession talks with Turkey.
Athens called for a EU-Turkey summit after the upcoming Turkish general elections next year, aimed at reviving the accession talks with Turkey.
Appearing at a press conference Wednesday, Greek Foreign Ministry Spokesman Grigoris Delavekuras, said an EU-Turkey Leaders’ Summit could function as a road map for Turkey’s accession to the EU, and give momentum to the accession talks which he said was moving at the speed of a turtle.
“We desire a genuine EU process and not a quasi one,” said Delavekuras.
Greek spokesperson said Athens wanted to facilitate an atmosphere which would put flesh on to the process and pave the way for an open dialogue. Delavekuras said this could be considered as a sequel to the Helsinki conference, that could ensure Turkey fulfills its commitments to the EU within a time frame.
In his speech in Brussels on November 22, Greek FM Dimitri Drucas, called for an EU-Turkey summit, that would clearly specify Turkey’s responsibilities as well as lay down a specific membership.
(Reuters) – Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused the EU on Tuesday of stalling Muslim Turkey’s membership bid by changing accession rules and said Turks were weary of “waiting at the gates” of Europe.
Erdogan spoke to Reuters on the same day the European Commission, executive arm of the European Union, chided Ankara for failing to revive key reforms in areas including as media freedom and human rights.
“We have been kept waiting at the gates of the EU for 50 years,” Erdogan said in an interview, underlining Ankara’s mounting frustration at the slow pace of accession talks.
“We are still waiting and waiting and still in the negotiating process,” adding Turkey’s public opinion was becoming “offended with the situation”.
“Since the game started, new rules have been brought into the game,” he said, voicing Ankara’s frequent complaint that Turkey is being unfairly discriminated against in a way that no previous EU candidate country had suffered.
Turkey, which straddles Asia and Europe, entered formal membership talks with the EU in 2005 but a row with Cyprus as well as reluctance among some EU governments to admit the large, relatively poor country has slowed progress to near standstill.
Out of 35 “chapters” — or subject areas for negotiation on EU entry — Turkey has completed only one and opened 13 others, leaving 21 to go.
With 18 chapters blocked, Turkey has only three remaining to open this year before it runs out of chapters to negotiate.
“I’m waiting to see what will happen after these three new chapters are opened and see what the EU will decide.”
In its annual progress report on aspirants to join the bloc, the EU executive said on Tuesday that Turkey, for another year, had failed to normalise relations with Cyprus, the southern part of the Mediterranean island that comes under the EU.
Erdogan reiterated Ankara’s long-held position that it will open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus when the EU ends its embargo of the Turkish enclave in the north of Cyprus — a territory recognised only by Ankara.
“In this progress report one of the important elements raised is to open up the ports. We say: ‘Yes, let’s open up the ports, let’s open them together,’” he said.
Some EU member states and the United States say EU membership would firmly anchor Turkey in the West and would help build a bridge with the Islamic world.
But EU heavyweights France and Germany say Turkey, which has a population of 75 million people and borders Syria, Iran and Iraq, is too culturally different and poor to fit in the bloc.
via Turkey weary of wait at Europe’s gates – PM Erdogan | Reuters.
The EU has called on Turkey to open up trade with Cyprus, to better promote gender equality and human rights, and to toe the line on foreign policy issues in a lukewarm appraisal of Ankara’s path towards EU membership.
The European Union announced on Tuesday that only one of seven candidates for membership in the bloc is close to achieving its goal.
“The negotiations with Croatia are now in their final phase,” the European Commission said in its annual report on the progress of would-be EU members.
The Commission pointed to widespread corruption and organized crime problems in other western Balkan applicant countries as the biggest hurdle to their joining the bloc in the short term, although it did announce that Montenegro was ready for full candidate status, saying the country’s democracy “is largely in line with European principles and standards.”
Montenegro’s application has already been recognized by the EU, and with the Commission’s approval, member states will now debate whether to grant the country candidate status and begin the process of negotiating membership. Croatia, Iceland, Turkey and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are the four candidates that have already reached this final phase of the accession process.
Turkey began its official negotiations five years ago, but the EU acknowledged in its report that the process has hit rather rocky ground.
“Negotiations advanced, albeit rather slowly,” the Commission said of accession talks with Ankara.
Several stumbling blocks
Despite praising constitutional reforms designed to fight corruption, wrest some political power away from the military, and improve the protection of human rights as “a step in the right direction,” the Commission said that Turkey was still lagging behind in areas like press freedom, freedom of expression and religion, the rights of women and trade unions, and the integration of the Kurdish minority in the country.
“The pace of reform in Turkey dictates the pace of the accession process,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in Berlin, shortly after the report was released.
The European Commission also called on Turkey to open trade ties with Cyprus and redouble diplomatic efforts with the country, describing the need for progress in this area as “urgent.” EU member state Cyprus and Turkey are locked in a territorial dispute over the northern part of the island, which has been occupied by Turkish forces since 1974. Reunification talks have stalled, and Turkey says it will not open trade ties with Cyprus until the problem is resolved. And while Cyprus tries to slow Turkey’s accession into the EU, Turkey is using its membership of NATO to hamper Cyprus’ bid to join that alliance.
Commission’s annual report is the sheer size of the country. A 2009 census put Turkey’s population at 72 million, which would make it the second most populous member of the bloc.
“That means Turkey would be represented in the European Parliament with a number of MPs to reflect its size, and the size of its population would also mean a lot of weight in decisions in the Council of Ministers,” the head of the EU program at the German Council on Foreign Relations, Almut Moeller, told Deutsche Welle. Moeller said that EU insiders often talk about the influence Turkey would wield in the bloc, and the affect it would have on the larger countries and their power structure.
“This is a sensitively calibrated order that has been around for a while now, and in the past we have only seen smaller and medium-sized countries entering the bloc. They have relatively little impact on the big players, but imagine what a country this size would mean for the old order, for the amount of power currently shared between France and Germany in the EU, for instance.”
Gul: ‘Strategic imperative’ to let Turkey in
Five years ago, there was an outpouring of pro-European sentiment and euphoria in Turkey when the country began the final phase of the EU accession process. But the mood seems to be souring as other applicants make much smoother process towards membership in the bloc.
On Monday, Brussels announced plans to grant visa-free travel within the EU’s open-border Schengen zone to people from Albania and Bosnia, and the Turkish newspaper Haber Tuerk responded by proclaiming on Tuesday’s front page: “Everyone’s allowed into the EU, except us.”
Citizens from every Balkan country except Kosovo, which some EU members consider a part of Serbia, are now free to travel within the EU’s open-border area, while Turks have to seek special visas.
“The EU will not be weaker, but stronger both politically and economically with Turkey’s membership,” Turkish President Abdullah Gul said in a speech in London on Monday. “Given the fact that the international balance of power tends to shift towards the East and Asia, it is, indeed, a strategic imperative for the EU to have Turkey as a member.”
Gul, speaking to the Chatham House think-tank after receiving the organization’s annual prize for statesmanship, said it was “sad to observe” that some European leaders did not recognize the role Turkey could play within the EU.
“This short-sighted vision is the major impediment before the idea of the EU as a global actor, capable of assuming greater responsibilities on political and security issues, complementing its economic clout,” the Turkish president said.
In his speech, Gul also announced that neighboring Iran had asked Turkey to host another round of talks with UN Security Council members and Germany on Tehran’s nuclear program, alluding to the diplomatic role his country might play for the EU.
However, Turkey’s international activities were also singled out by the EU for veiled criticism on Tuesday, after the country defied the US and EU to vote against tougher UN sanctions for Iran earlier this year.
“Turkey’s foreign policy has become more active in its wider neighborhood,” the commission’s report said. “This is an asset for the European Union, provided it is developed as a complement to Turkey’s accession process and in coordination with the EU.”
International Strategic Research Organization (USAK) hosted a meeting with key European Parliament members concerning the recent developments and deadlocked relations between Turkey and European Union on 3rd of November 2010.
The conference titled “Future of Turkish-EU Relations” provided a unique opportunity for the speakers and participants to discuss the problems and trajectories in Turkey-EU relations. Turkish and European experts in their fields as well as the policy makers attended to the conference. The purpose of the conference was to provide overview and possible recommendation concerning Turkey- EU relations. USAK hosted the members of “Friends of Turkey Group” namely, Andrew Duff (President of the European Federalists, UK), Alexandra Thein (Germany), Anneli Jaateenmaki (Former Minister of Finland), Metin Kazak (Bulgaria), Marietje Schaake (Netherlands), Jelko Kacin (Former Minister of Defence of Slovenia), Diane Wallis (Vice President of European Parliament, UK), Anne Maria Corraza- Bildt (Sweden), Birgit Schnieber Jastram (Germany), Jo Leinen (Chairperson of Environment Committee,Germany), Jutta Steinruck (Germany); under the chairmanship of the Guner Özkan, the chair of Center of Eurasia Studies, and Alosz Peterle, Member of European Parliament, President of the Friends of Turkey group and former Prime Minister of Slovenia.
The conference began with two comprehensive presentations which addressed the Turkey-EU relations by USAK experts; Mustafa Kutlay and Ceren Mutus.
Mustafa Kutlay in his presentation, focused on three pillars of EU-Turkey Relations. Kutlay focused on the changing dynamics of Turkey’s EU journey, future of Turkey- EU Relations and the discussion about the whether Turkey drifting away from the EU.
Regarding the dynamics of Turkey- EU Relations, Kutlay stated that “free market economy and economic development” together with “institutionalization of democracy and development of human Rights” are the two main objectives for Turkey. Furthermore he also touched upon two other pillars “stability in foreign policy in instable regions” and “modernization within the context of Westernization.” However, according to him, the last two pillars are not priorities for Turkey at the existing conjuncture.
Ceren Mutus who is an expert on European Studies in USAK, briefly mentioned about the political reforms initiated between 2001 and 2004 and concluded her speech by shedding light on the legal and technical content of the recent constitutional package.
She claimed that the sweeping reforms that have been undertaken by Turkey between 1999 and 2004 were mainly due to the concrete commitment made by the EU towards Turkey’s membership. Turkey, with the aim of fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria and become eligible for the formal negotiations, pushed forward ambitious reform packages. In this context, death penalty was removed from the Turkish Constitution, the legal protection of socio-cultural rights of Turkish citizens irrespective of their ethnic and religious origin has been improved, the role of the military in Turkish political life has been significantly diminished, the freedom of expression has been enhanced and recently a comprehensive judicial reform promoting the well- functioning of the justice system was adopted.
After the presentations, Alojz Peterle takes attention to the difference between the planning and preparation from implementation. He emphasized that at the beginning of the process, there was romantic atmosphere. However Turkey’s membership is different and more difficult than the other candidate countries. Moreover he believes that, both sides done much of things such as reforms and values over the last decade. Furthermore, he marked that EU should show its interest and prove the support of Turkey’s membership during the process.
Former Finland Prime Minister, Anneli Jaateenmaki contributed to the discussion by highlighting the fact that there is a long list of reforms, but it is difficult to implement. Even it seems good and efficient; the implementation is not strong.
President of the European Federalists, Andrew Duff emphasized that Turkey’s military is so big and corrupted. It also failed to defeat PKK. He also raised the questions as follows: “Why Turkey is so tolerant to this big army and its activities. “If Turkey’s PM and President order army forces to withdraw from Cyprus, would they obey?”
Anna Maria pointed out her disappointment about the negative attitude toward the closed chapters which was shown by experts. She continued attracting attention to the different perspectives of the parties. For instance, according to her some people, of course, scared about Turkey’s membership because of the recession the process of secularization and Kurdish Issue.
USAK Expert, Prof. Ihsan Bal, respond the comments by stating that, “Turkish public mind is changing about the implementation of the reforms. Western political reforms and values will be implemented because there is a public demanding and politicians try to respond positively to these demands. To be honest, reforms are implemented more strictly and effectively when we compare it with 10 years before.”
He gave some interesting samples during his speech. For instance, he believes that “If military coups occur citizens will protest unlike 1980’s. Of course, some of the people want coups and military actions. We can label them as “ultra-nationalist” groups but they are a small minority group. In that respect democratic initiative towards Kurds got support and military is silent because of the huge majority support backing the project.”
According to Kurdish issue, he argues that it is a combination of economy and security. He mentions that the terms of numbers of killed-terrorists shows the military success but it is not the solution way. Of course democratic governments use military tools in order to solve the problem, like Britain, but it is just part of the issue. In other words, governments not take the military decision solely. They should use civil agents, such as police force and intelligence services take more roles in the region at the problem.
He emphasized the importance of the USAK report in 2005 which triggered the reform in military institution. “Army takes some steps and become more professional. It reduces the number of compulsory service man. But reforms need time, can be effective in long term. To be realistic the change over one night is impossible.”
Bal take attention to Cyprus issue as well. He underlines that there is not only one way to solve the issues. Turkish military presence is not the sole reason for the problem. Both sides should make some other progress and take actions. Moreover, Turkish Cypriots isolated and it is not fair while other side is recognized as EU member and enjoys benefits of the membership. In other words; we say “yes” to referendum but, get no benefit. Cyprus issue should take consider as package not as a chapter.
Güner Özkan closed the conference by admitting Turkey’s active policy in the last decade. He believes that those active policies are not aiming to replace EU, Turkey just diverse its options. He clearly pointed that; there will be no alternative to EU for Turkey. More importantly, he said the other alternatives are not comparable to the EU. In the ten year period, we hope to have more deep economic and political relations with EU.
By Firat Güzeldag and Kasim Ileri (JTW)
Journal of Turkish Weekly, 3 November 2010
International Strategic Research Organization (USAK) hosted a meeting with key European Parliament members concerning the recent developments and deadlocked relations between Turkey and European Union on 3rd of November 2010. The conference titled “Future of Turkish-EU Relations” provided a unique opportunity for the speakers and participants to discuss the problems and trajectories in Turkey-EU relations. Turkish and European experts in their fields as well as the policy makers attended to the conference. The purpose of the conference was to provide overview and possible recommendation concerning Turkey- EU relations. USAK hosted the members of “Friends of Turkey Group” namely, Andrew Duff (President of the European Federalists, UK), Alexandra Thein (Germany), Anneli Jaateenmaki (Former Minister of Finland), Metin Kazak(Bulgaria), Marietje Schaake (Netherlands), Jelko Kacin (Former Minister of Defence of Slovenia), Diane Wallis (Vice President of European Parliament, UK), Anne Maria Corraza- Bildt (Sweden), Birgit Schnieber Jastram (Germany), Jo Leinen (Chairperson of Environment Committee,Germany), Jutta Steinruck (Germany); under the chairmanship of the Guner Özkan, the chair of Center of Eurasia Studies, and Alosz Peterle, Member of European Parliament, President of the Friends of Turkey group and former Prime Minister of Slovenia.
The conference began with two comprehensive presentations which addressed the Turkey-EU relations by USAK experts; Mustafa Kutlay and Ceren Mutus.
Mustafa Kutlay in his presentation, focused on three pillars of EU-Turkey Relations. Kutlay focused on the changing dynamics of Turkey’s EU journey, future of Turkey- EU Relations and the discussion about the whether Turkey drifting away from the EU.
Regarding the dynamics of Turkey- EU Relations, Kutlay stated that “free market economy and economic development” together with “institutionalization of democracy and development of human Rights” are the two main objectives for Turkey. Furthermore he also touched upon two other pillars “stability in foreign policy in instable regions” and “modernization within the context of Westernization.” However, according to him, the last two pillars are not priorities for Turkey at the existing conjuncture.
Ceren Mutus who is an expert on European Studies in USAK, briefly mentioned about the political reforms initiated between 2001 and 2004 and concluded her speech by shedding light on the legal and technical content of the recent constitutional package.
She claimed that the sweeping reforms that have been undertaken by Turkey between 1999 and 2004 were mainly due to the concrete commitment made by the EU towards Turkey’s membership. Turkey, with the aim of fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria and become eligible for the formal negotiations, pushed forward ambitious reform packages. In this context, death penalty was removed from the Turkish Constitution, the legal protection of socio-cultural rights of Turkish citizens irrespective of their ethnic and religious origin has been improved, the role of the military in Turkish political life has been significantly diminished, the freedom of expression has been enhanced and recently a comprehensive judicial reform promoting the well- functioning of the justice system was adopted.
After the presentations, Alojz Peterle takes attention to the difference between the planning and preparation from implementation. He emphasized that at the beginning of the process, there was romantic atmosphere. However Turkey’s membership is different and more difficult than the other candidate countries. Moreover he believes that, both sides done much of things such as reforms and values over the last decade. Furthermore, he marked that EU should show its interest and prove the support of Turkey’s membership during the process.
Former Finland Prime Minister, Anneli Jaateenmaki contributed to the discussion by highlighting the fact that there is a long list of reforms, but it is difficult to implement. Even it seems good and efficient; the implementation is not strong.
President of the European Federalists, Andrew Duff emphasized that Turkey’s military is so big and corrupted. It also failed to defeat PKK. He also raised the questions as follows: “Why Turkey is so tolerant to this big army and its activities. “If Turkey’s PM and President order army forces to withdraw from Cyprus, would they obey?”
Anna Maria pointed out her disappointment about the negative attitude toward the closed chapters which was shown by experts. She continued attracting attention to the different perspectives of the parties. For instance, according to her some people, of course, scared about Turkey’s membership because of the recession the process of secularization and Kurdish Issue.
USAK Expert, Prof. Ihsan Bal, respond the comments by stating that, “Turkish public mind is changing about the implementation of the reforms. Western political reforms and values will be implemented because there is a public demanding and politicians try to respond positively to these demands. To be honest, reforms are implemented more strictly and effectively when we compare it with 10 years before.”
He gave some interesting samples during his speech. For instance, he believes that “If military coups occur citizens will protest unlike 1980’s. Of course, some of the people want coups and military actions. We can label them as “ultra-nationalist” groups but they are a small minority group. In that respect democratic initiative towards Kurds got support and military is silent because of the huge majority support backing the project.”
According to Kurdish issue, he argues that it is a combination of economy and security. He mentions that the terms of numbers of killed-terrorists shows the military success but it is not the solution way. Of course democratic governments use military tools in order to solve the problem, like Britain, but it is just part of the issue. In other words, governments not take the military decision solely. They should use civil agents, such as police force and intelligence services take more roles in the region at the problem.
He emphasized the importance of the USAK report in 2005 which triggered the reform in military institution. “Army takes some steps and become more professional. It reduces the number of compulsory service man. But reforms need time, can be effective in long term. To be realistic the change over one night is impossible.”
Bal take attention to Cyprus issue as well. He underlines that there is not only one way to solve the issues. Turkish military presence is not the sole reason for the problem. Both sides should make some other progress and take actions. Moreover, Turkish Cypriots isolated and it is not fair while other side is recognized as EU member and enjoys benefits of the membership. In other words; we say “yes” to referendum but, get no benefit. Cyprus issue should take consider as package not as a chapter.
Güner Özkan closed the conference by admitting Turkey’s active policy in the last decade. He believes that those active policies are not aiming to replace EU, Turkey just diverse its options. He clearly pointed that; there will be no alternative to EU for Turkey. More importantly, he said the other alternatives are not comparable to the EU. In the ten year period, we hope to have more deep economic and political relations with EU.
VIENNA (AP) — Several far-right parties that oppose Turkish membership in the European Union said Saturday they will push for an EU referendum on the subject.
Turkey began accession talks in 2005, but has made little progress, due mostly to a dispute over Cyprus — an EU member that is divided between the ethnic Greek south and Turkish north.
Austrian Freedom Party chief Heinz-Christian Strache and members of Belgium’s nationalist Flemish Interest Party, the Sweden Democrats and the Danish People’s Party, among others, said Turkey has no place in Europe and that citizens should be allowed to weigh in on the matter.
“We are all simply of the firm opinion that Europe would go dramatically astray if one starts taking in non-European countries as members,” Strache said. “It would be the end of the European Union, it would be the beginning of a Euro-Asian-African union that would stand in complete opposition to the European peace project and therefore can’t be allowed to happen.”
Strache and others spoke to reporters the sidelines of a two-day meeting aimed at boosting the parties’ coordination. It comes amid a recent resurgence of support for right-wing parties across the continent.
Morten Messerschmidt of the Danish People’s Party, who also is a member of the European Parliament, said the parties would use the so-called citizens’ initiative included in the EU’s new Lisbon Treaty to “suggest to have a referendum from Romania to Denmark, from Italy to Finland … on this topic of Turkish membership in order to consult not only the politically correct establishment within the European Commission but the average European.”
Turkish EU membership is a divisive issue in Europe, with leaders of key states such as Germany and France among those expressing reservations about it. But Britain, Italy and Spain have supported the mostly Muslim country’s EU bid.
President Barack Obama has urged the EU to embrace Turkey, a member of the Group of 20 and NATO strategically located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, saying its EU membership would broaden and strengthen the continent’s foundations.
Washington also considers Turkey an important ally with far-reaching influence stretching from Afghanistan to the Middle East.
via The Associated Press: Far-right parties oppose EU membership for Turkey.
The EU has called on Turkey to open up trade with Cyprus, to better promote gender equality and human rights, and to toe the line on foreign policy issues in a lukewarm appraisal of Ankara’s path towards EU membership.
