Tag: Turkey – EU

Accession impossible

Although a member of numerous regional and international organisations, Turkey is still not in the EU, despite negotiations dating back some 50 years. A columnist wonders if the the country has missed its chance to become anything more than an auxiliary to US foreign policy in the Middle East.

Öztin Akgüc

Since the beginning of the 1960s, Turkey has planned on joining the European Union. At the time when this process began, the union, which was then called the European Economic Community, had only six members. Today Turkey is still involved in accession talks with the European Union, which now has 27 members and will shortly welcome a 28th with the inclusion of Croatia [on July 1].

Since 1969, has also been a member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Islamic Development Bank. At the same time Turkey has joined a wide range of other international organisations like the OECD, and the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), of which it was a one of the principal founders. Of course, it is also a member of NATO and, it seems, flirting with the idea of joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

In view of this context, you might assume that Turkey was very much an active player in world politics. But is this the true story? In any case, I am one of those who, right from the start, argued that Turkey could not join the European Union.

Regardless of how you view the Union and the integration process, you have to admit that both of these concepts have to be based on shared values. Given that Estonia, Lithuania, Romania and Bulgaria are part of the EU, and now that Croatia is about join, it is worth wondering: why should Turkey not be a member of the Union?

Combatting Moscow’s influence

In my view, these countries became members of the EU for reasons that are first and foremost political. In the early 1990s in the wake of the collapse of the USSR and the end of Comecon [the economic organisation of the Soviet Bloc], the view was that it would be necessary to regroup these countries in a structure to prevent them from being reabsorbed by Moscow’s sphere of influence.

The structure best suited to this purpose was the European Union, and this policy was encouraged by the Clinton administration. Croatia, which was close to Germany, played a critical role in the breakup of Yugoslavia. That is the reason why I believe that it really deserves its place in the European Union. On the contrary, there is no political reason to justify Turkish accession to the EU. And even if Turkey is flirting with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, even if it claims that it amounts to a viable alternative, everyone knows it will not be possible. Moreover, some consider the idea to be a political joke.

The reality of its political role is that Turkey acts as a second class subcontractor for the United States in the Middle East. The lack of political awareness in large sections of society, the calibre of Turkey’s politicians, the quality of its media, the capacity and the level of our entrepreneurs and civil servants have unfortunately all helped to confine Turkey to this supporting role.

‘Second-class subcontractor’

We should not delude ourselves with terms like co-president [an allusion to Turkey’s co-presidency of the Greater Middle East Initiative launched by George W. Bush, which was the subject of intense criticism in Turkish nationalist circles], but rather take stock of this sad reality. I use the term “second-class subcontractor” because I cannot find a better one to describe our situation with regard to the largely preferential treatment accorded to Israel.

For as long as large sections of our society have yet to develop a greater awareness of their citizenship, we will continue to be beguiled by empty notions about ourselves, but the situation of our country will not change.

ON THE WEB

Original article at Cumhuriyet tr

OPINION

Really never?

“Turkey will never be part of the EU,” announces the headline of an article recently published in the German tabloid Bild. But “what Bild does not realise is that the word “never” does not feature in the lexicon of the EU,” says Milliyet, which points out that the EU has kept the Turks waiting without saying if their patience will ever be rewarded. For the Istanbul daily,

We have now reached a point where the central question is no longer ‘Will Turkey ever be be a member?’ but rather ‘Does Turkey still want to become a member?’

However, the newspaper continues —

Political decisions in EU member states, which are linked to the economic situation in those countries, will have a decisive impact on Turkish accession. […] The major fear in Ankara is that the trend of ‘letting citizens decide’ will become standard practice in the negotiation process.”

via Turkey: Accession impossible | Presseurop (English).

March 12, 2013
Why Turkey is giving up on the European Union

And it’s no longer wedded to following America’s lead, explains Pitt professor RONALD H. LINDEN

By Ronald H. Linden

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Turkey’s formal association with what is now the European Union, and it has been more than 25 years since Ankara formally applied to join. Since that first approach, 21 other countries have become members, including fellow NATO states, such as Greece, and the former communist countries of Europe, including some that were once republics of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Turkey waits.

The formation of a customs union with the EU in 1996, Turkey’s designation as a “candidate member” in 1999 and the beginning of negotiations in 2005 indicated that membership would come, eventually. But “eventually” turned into “not soon” and, perhaps, “not ever.”

Turkey’s prime minister, Recip Tayyip Erdogan, like a spurned suitor, has declared that “the EU is not a must for Turkey. It is not the apocalypse if they do not let us in the EU.”

With Turkey’s robust economic growth compared to Europe’s anemia and its young labor force compared to Europe’s aging population, he is not wrong. Mr. Erdogan went on to suggest that Turkey should seriously consider joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a loose grouping of Central Asian states backed by Russia and China. Originally set up to try to limit the influence of separatist or religious threats, this group now aims mostly to challenge the influence of the West.

While sentiments born of frustration — “I’ve been thrown out of better bars than this” — might be written off as the product of an impulsive and occasionally emotional leader, they do echo public views in Turkey. Where once three-quarters of Turks supported joining the EU, the latest polls show that two-thirds now feel Turkey should abandon the effort, according to EDAM, a leading Turkish think tank.

EU officials have raised entirely legitimate concerns about Turkey’s readiness for membership, which include issues of minority rights, freedom of expression and the continued non-recognition of (not to mention a Turkish military presence in) an EU member state, Cyprus. Still, many Turks, including the prime minister, suspect that the holdup has more to do with Turkey’s 99 percent Muslim population.

And they take it personally. It rankles Turkey’s extraordinarily successful businessmen, for example, that citizens of virtually all the states of the former Yugoslavia — whether candidate members or not — can now travel to Europe visa-free while they must wrestle with forms and delays to enter the border-free area.

The Turks are not waiting around for a warmer welcome. Those same business travelers can — and do — go to Russia without visas. Russia has become Turkey’s largest trading partner, surpassing the EU, and hosts more than $17 billion in Turkish investment projects. Russia is also Turkey’s major energy supplier, sends 3.5 million tourists a year to Turkey and will soon begin construction on Turkey’s first nuclear power plant. In 2010 the two countries signed a “strategic partnership,” which has produced cooperation at the Cabinet level, including between foreign ministries.

With the second-largest military in NATO, Turkey is hardly a perfect alliance partner for Russia. The two countries hold quite different views on several pressing issues, most immediately how to handle the impending collapse of the Assad regime in Syria. Turkey also has irritated Moscow by agreeing to host a sophisticated NATO radar system designed to counter a possible Iranian nuclear arsenal and, more recently, Patriot missiles to protect the border with Syria. Last fall, Turkey forced a passenger jet headed to Syria from Russia to land in Ankara so it could be inspected for possible weapons smuggling

Such episodes have not prevented Turkey and Russia from making clear their shared hostility to military action against Iran or a more muscular NATO presence in the Black Sea. Ankara has repeatedly blocked NATO efforts to expand Operation Active Endeavor, an anti-terrorism effort in the eastern Mediterranean, into its Black Sea neighborhood. Turkey, like Russia, sees this region as its own responsibility and prefers to police it with its own forces — with Russian participation.

In 2010 Turkey agreed to let Russia build its South Stream pipeline through Turkish waters — offering a direct route from Russia to Europe — a project in direct competition with Europe’s own Nabucco pipeline. With supplies uncertain and gas prices falling, it is not clear if both pipelines are economically viable, but true to its own plan to become an “energy hub,” Turkey signed on to both South Stream and Nabucco.

As these moves indicate, the Turkish government is pursuing policies in accordance with its own strategic vision, which has been outlined explicitly by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, often described as “the Turkish Henry Kissinger.” Under his guidance and with the strong backing of the ruling Law and Justice Party, Turkey has reversed years of relative isolation from its neighbors and strict adherence to policies preferred by Washington to undertake active, even aggressive diplomacy.

Turkey now has full embassies in nearly 100 countries and representation in more than 200. State-owned Turkish Airlines flies to more countries from a single airport (Istanbul) than either Lufthansa or Air France. In Africa and the Balkans, Turkish companies are building roads and airports and, in former Ottoman areas, facilitating cooperation, such as between Bosnia and Serbia, refurbishing mosques and supporting Turkish communities.

Like ambitious powers before them, the Turks have discovered — most recently in the Middle East — that their involvement is not always effective or welcome. Former close allies, like Bashar Assad in Syria, do not take kindly to Turkey’s willingness to host rebel groups — a posture for Turkey that is especially tricky considering that it occasionally bombs the territory of its neighbors, as in Iraq, where anti-Turkish groups operate.

As it searches for a new role in the post-post-Cold War world, Turkey is learning what another influential international power learned in its day. “Britain,” Lord Palmerston said in 1848, “had no eternal allies and no perpetual enemies, only interests that were eternal and perpetual.”

In a rapidly changing, post-ideological age, the Turks are applying that lesson. Their once and future friends in the West might want to take notice.

Ronald H. Linden is professor of political science and director of the European Union Center of Excellence/European Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh (linden@ pitt.edu).
First Published March 3, 2013 12:00 am

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/why-turkey-is-giving-up-on-the-european-union-677683/#ixzz2Mz1ikOym

March 8, 2013
Accession to EU could undermine Turkey’s sovereignty: Iran MP

Turkey entered formal membership talks with the European Union in 2005.

An Iranian lawmaker says Turkey should honor its own sovereignty and be aware about the ramifications of adopting submissive policies aimed at laying the groundwork for its accession to the European Union.

Mansour Haqiqatpour, a member of Iran’s Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, said on Friday, “Turkey must not trade its sovereignty for membership in the European Union.”

The Iranian lawmaker made the comment in reference to recent remarks by German Chancellor Angela Merkel about Turkey’s accession to the EU.

In her last week visit to Turkey, Merkel called for resumption of negotiations for Ankara’s accession to the EU despite objections both within the German ruling party and in other European countries against Turkey’s membership.

“Turkey must find its own indigenous model of development and it should not appeal for the West’s help for attaining progress, because that undermines the dignity of the Turkish nation,” Haqiqatpour said.

“For years, the Turkish government has gone to any lengths by adopting numerous initiatives, applying constant changes to its economic laws and trying to adapt itself to the liberal-democracy culture.”

“When the Europeans witness Turkey’s passion for accession to the EU, they easily impose any kind of law on the country which ensures the West’s interests and inflicts damage to the Turkish economy and culture,” the Iranian lawmaker pointed out.

He alluded to the exacerbating economic crisis across the EU, including in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy and said, “By witnessing the conditions of these countries, Turkey must conclude that membership in this bankrupt union will worsen the country’s condition instead of improving it.”

An opinion poll conducted by the Turkish Bosforo University between December 15 and 17, 2012, showed that 59 percent of the people in Turkey do not agree with its membership in the EU.

A similar opinion poll conducted in 2003 showed that 73 percent of the Turkish people welcomed the membership and only 27 percent of the respondents rejected the bid.

Turkey, which straddles Asia and Europe, entered formal membership talks with the European Union in 2005, but reluctance among some EU states on the matter has slowed the process to a near standstill.

ASH/HSN/MA

via PressTV – Accession to EU could undermine Turkey’s sovereignty: Iran MP.

March 3, 2013
Turkey and the European Union: A tiny thaw?

A tiny thaw?

Many Turks have given up, but progress towards the EU inches forward

Feb 23rd 2013 | ISTANBUL |From the print edition

AFTER 30 months in the deep freeze Turkey’s bid to join the European Union is for once warming a bit. France, which under Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency blocked five of the 35 chapters that must be completed, has lifted its veto on one to do with regional aid. In Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades has a big lead in the presidential election (see article). He backed a 2004 UN plan to reunify the island that was accepted by Turkish-Cypriots but rejected by Greek-Cypriots. He could give Cyprus’s settlement talks a new push that might lead to its dropping some of its own vetoes on new chapters. Queasiness over letting in a big, powerful and prickly Muslim country aside, the EU’s biggest gripe with Turkey is its refusal to open ports to Greek-Cypriot vessels.

“No force can tear us away from Europe,” said Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, at a recent conference. Yet Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, has talked of joining the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation with Russia, China, and Central Asia (he later recanted). Such frustration is understandable: popular Turkish support for EU membership has fallen from over 70% when talks began in 2005 to as low as 33%. Nothing grates more than the various forms of watered-down membership touted by Germany’s Angela Merkel and other naysayers like the Austrians and the Dutch. “Membership is like pregnancy: you either are or you aren’t. There is no halfway position,” scoffs Egemen Bagis, Turkey’s Europe minister.

Under Mr Erdogan’s Justice and Development (AK) party, Turkey’s economy has become the world’s 17th-biggest. “European excuses about Turkey being a poor country are rubbish,” says Cengiz Aktar, an academic and EU specialist. Ten years of AK rule has also made Turkey more democratic. With scores of generals in jail on coup-plotting charges, the army has lost power. Yet Mr Erdogan’s critics say that, after a decade in government with weak opposition, AK has become arrogant and overbearing. Turkey, says the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, is the “the world’s leading jailer” of reporters, with at least 49 hacks behind bars. Dissidents are jailed under vague anti-terror laws. Mr Bagis’s response—“I’m not saying Turkey is perfect. But it is better than yesterday’s Turkey”—will not satisfy many.

Turkey is also flexing its muscles abroad. Foreign aid has risen 27-fold in the past decade. But a car bomb that killed many Turks on the border with Syria this week was a brutal reminder of the risks in Turkey’s support for rebels against Bashar Assad, Syria’s president. The West’s failure to intervene has left Turkey isolated. Indeed, a thaw with Europe could not have come at a better time. Mr Erdogan has resumed peace talks with the jailed Kurdish leader, Abdullah Ocalan. The lure of EU membership could propel both Turks and Kurds into a deal. Some provisions would have to go into the new constitution that the parliament is trying, amid much squabbling, to draft. The Kurds insist that more regional autonomy be one of them. The unfrozen EU chapter on regional aid, says Mr Aktar, “meshes perfectly with this”.

From the print edition: Europe

via Turkey and the European Union: A tiny thaw? | The Economist.

March 1, 2013
Merkel’s Visit to Turkey Marks a Positive Change of Mind

As the eurozone crisis shows signs of further deepening with the new uncertainties in the wake of Italian ‘non-elections’, Germany is increasingly under strain to keep the European Union intact.

Berlin has to deal not only with the brewing anti-austerity and anti-unionism in the Mediterranean strip of the EU (all the way from Cyprus through Portugal, except, perhaps, France), but also with an uneasy Britain and loudly impatient Turkey on the continent’s both flanks.

In that context, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Turkey must be added as another positive step toward melting the icy relationship between Ankara and the EU.

It follows two other important recent steps. First, France unblocked a chapter (of five) of Ankara’s negotiations with Brussels, coming during its current peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and secondly, Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly (57.5 percent) voted for the Democratic Rally (DISY) leader, Nicos Anastasiades in the presidential election, a strong signal of a mood change on the island.

Merkel’s visit was long overdue. It has been well-noted that she has visited Turkey only once in three years, while Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has visited Germany four times.

Should it be interpreted as the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) now being in accord with its coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), about the strategic importance, economic performance and crucial democratic transformation of Turkey? Perhaps. Does this mean that the German chancellor comes closer to CDU heavyweights who have been vocally pro-Turkish membership, such as Ruprecht Polenz, Chariman of the Bundestag’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, and gets ready to be challenged by others within?

Could be. Deep down she knows that she has the backing of those CDU strong figures, on central and local level, although a few, about remaining committed to coalition protocol on Turkey’s accession and support for it to continue. But a slight challenge nevertheless.

No matter what,one can hope that the visit and the positive sound of her messages indicate a long-lasting change of mind.

Cynics in Turkey and Germany think they have seen “no progress” between Erdoğan and Merkel on Turkey’s EU accession process. Populist Bild Zeitung, in another outburst of sensationalist Turkophobia, totally insensitive to Turkey’s internationally important democratization process as ever, declared that ‘Turkey would never be a full member of the EU’ — despite its powerful economy. (This view reveals more about some parts of the Europe than Turkey itself).

Bild is joined in Turkey by voices that have been anti-reform, anti-AKP and anti-Europe.

The truth, and the good news, is, Merkel not only endorsed France’s unblocking move, but also signaled that other chapters may follow, with perhaps a second one even before the end of the Irish term presidency in the EU. One understands that she needs to balance very carefully in an election year for Germany on a subject which can shake and stir the votes.

There are many aspects to why Germany should be more active, frank and clear about its relations with Turkey and its policy on the EU negotiations. Pro-EU arguments based on today’s Turkish economy speak for themselves, as outlined by Kemal Derviş, the vice president of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and a former minister of economic affairs of Turkey, for the daily Handelsblatt on Feb. 25, 2013 in an article titled “Die Politik ist am Zug” (“The policy is on track”).

Apart from fine figures on inflation, growth, reduced deficit, employment, strong currency and reserves, German politicians do look with admiration at “hardworking” Turks (a virtue they value highly), when they compare them with the Mediterranean citizens of the EU.

Turkey with such an economy is now too big for Germany to ignore, and far too important to be seen only as a simple trading partner, no doubt. Therefore, the tough visa regulations and the particularly rigid implementation of it attributed to German general councils in Turkey must be eased — liberalized in the sense that, once having passed a security check, Turkish citizens must be given five-year, multiple-entry Schengen visas.

Nor should there be any doubt that increasing defense cooperation through NATO on Syria creates a new momentum for Berlin to realize more deeply Turkey’s significance on the southeastern flank of the continent, as it shoulders increasing burdens. Stability in Turkey, in that sense, can be said to be serving the stability of Germany, and of Europe as a whole.

Merkel did not say much on Turkey’s Kurdish peace process, but given the presence of large, politicized Turkish communities; Alevi and Kurdish diasporas in her own country — take it for granted that solutions on all social rifts here will ease tensions there. Interests overlap.

And in that case, it is demanded that Germany more thoroughly consider indirect, discreet assistance to endorse Turkey in its struggle against historical demons. The EU membership process, kept alive and well, is the best help.

What Bild Zeitung and other populist tabloids do miss is that, what still matters most for Turkey’s reformist camp is the perspective of, and not necessarily, membership.

Given the current turmoil and identity crisis the EU is in, it can be said that there will have to be referendums on Turkish membership — in Europe and Turkey – between now and the final decision. The process is still premature: It needs a decade or more. So, no need for myopia.

Merkel is certainly right in her arguments about Cyprus (that Turkey opens its sea and airports to its flights and vessels), even if it is an issue that still needs time, given the stalemate. Before that, both sides on the island must show a concrete, willful progress on reaching a settlement.

It has become also clear that Erdoğan is willing to resolve the issue in a broader context.

He expects a complementary signal from Anastasiades, and has in mind a “package solution” that should involve Cypriots as well as Greece, energy, security and economic cooperation in Eastern Mediterranean, with the backing of Britain and the U.S.

Germany can play a crucial role, in both EU and NATO context, if Erdoğan’s ideas make any sense.

February 28, 2013
Merkel Gives Turkey Hope for E.U. Membership

Merkel Raises Turks’ Hope Of European Union Entry

By MELISSA EDDY

BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany arrived in Turkey on Sunday for talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, holding out hope for new impetus in the stalled negotiations for the country to join the European Union.

“In recent times, negotiations stalled somewhat and I am in favor of opening a new chapter in order to move forward,” Ms. Merkel said in her weekly podcast, broadcast on Saturday.

She began her tour on Sunday with a visit to German troops who are deployed along the Turkish border with Syria.

There is significant skepticism within Ms. Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union about Turkish membership in the European Union, but as Turkey has continued to grow and the economies of the bloc have stagnated, the dynamic has begun to change.

Germany and Turkey are bound tightly by the large population of Turkish guest workers who came to work in West German factories in the 1960s and remained. In addition, Turkey is one of Germany’s most important trade partners outside of the European Union, with an annual exchange of goods worth roughly $40 billion.

The country pushed through structural reforms to its economy and social services nearly a decade ago as part of its efforts to join the bloc, which have helped contribute to solid growth of about 5.2 percent annually between 2002 and 2011, according to Turkish government figures.

Günther Oettinger, a member of the Christian Democrats who now serves as the energy commissioner for the European Union, stirred debate in Berlin last week when he said in an interview with the newspaper Bild that he believed that if the European Union waited too long to revive negotiations with Turkey, it risked an eventual turning of the tables.

“I’d bet that within the next decade, a German chancellor along with their colleagues from France will go begging on their knees to Ankara saying, ‘Friends, come to us,’ ” Mr. Oettinger told the newspaper.

Turkey has complained bitterly about the lack of support from the German government for its accession campaign, which started in 2005. Recently, negotiations have all but ground to a halt over opposing views on crucial issues, including human rights and a divided Cyprus.

Ms. Merkel’s government and the Christian Democrats have for years called on the bloc to allow Turkey to achieve what they call a “privileged partnership,” instead of full membership. But important party members have begun to indicate their apprehensions toward Ankara may be changing.

France has also resisted the idea of Turkey’s full accession and, with Cyprus and the European Commission, has blocked movement on all but 13 of the 35 policy areas, called chapters, that countries striving for membership must complete. Turkey has so far completed only one.

But President François Hollande of France signaled last week that he was ready to open talks on one chapter blocked under the government of his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Prime Minister Erdogan said in Istanbul that he was hopeful that Ms. Merkel’s comments and similar remarks by Mr. Hollande meant there could be renewed movement while the Irish presidency holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, which ends in July.

“Since Ms. Merkel came to office, she has repeatedly used the expression ‘privileged partnership’ about our European Union process,” Mr. Erdogan said, according to Reuters.

He said: “Now there is change in France and a difference in the views of Germany and France. Along with Chancellor Merkel’s positive statement on opening chapters, these will pay off during Ireland’s presidency.”

On Monday, she will hold talks in Ankara with Mr. Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul.

“I think a long negotiating path lies ahead of us,” Ms. Merkel said “Although I am skeptical, I agreed with the continuation of membership discussions. We are engaging in these with an open result.”

A version of this article appeared in print on February 25, 2013, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Merkel Raises Turks’ Hope Of European Union Entry .

via Merkel Gives Turkey Hope for E.U. Membership – NYTimes.com.

February 25, 2013