Tag: Turkey – EU

Meeting the Geopolitical Challenges of the Arab Spring: A Call for a joint EU-Turkish Agenda

Meeting the Geopolitical Challenges of the Arab Spring: A Call for a joint EU-Turkish Agenda

by Günter Verheugen

This policy brief discusses the potential for cooperation between Turkey and the EU in the countries that are going through political transformation in the Middle East and North Africa. Since both sides have a vested interest in seeing stability, peace and strong economic development in this shared neighbourhood, they must work together and develop a common strategy by which to combine their strengths and advantages while offsetting their weaknesses. The brief highlights how the relationships between Turkey, the EU, and the Arab world are all fraught with difﬁ culties and tensions that prevent coordinated action between the ﬁ rst two parties. Despite these limitations, if the European Union and Turkey managed to cooperate on such a geopolitically important project, it would have an enormous additional beneﬁt: revitalizing the stalled relationship between the EU and Turkey and lending it a sense of urgency and importance.

To read the full report both in English and in French, visit:

February 3, 2012
Should Turkey join the EU? | FreshCyprus

Question by Brett E: Should Turkey join the EU?

EU foreign ministers are considering what sanctions to impose on Turkey over its failure to open its ports to trade with the Greek Cypriot government of Cyprus.

Turkey wants an embargo lifted on the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state but the European Commission has proposed freezing elements of Turkey’s membership talks.

The 25 EU member states are deeply divided over Turkish membership. Supporters say it’s strategically important to welcome this moderate Muslim nation. Opponents fear Turkey’s size, relative poverty, historical and cultural differences.

Would you like to see Turkey join the EU?

Best answer:

Answer by Hove Andrew

No

via Should Turkey join the EU? | FreshCyprus.

January 5, 2012
Turkey and the European: rethinking a multifaceted relationship

Call for Papers: Interdisciplinary Workshop “Turkey and the European: rethinking a multifaceted relationship” by Tilburg University

December 15, 2011 by Changing Turkey

Interdisciplinary Workshop

Turkey and the European: rethinking a multifaceted relationship

21 September 2012, Tilburg Law School, Tilburg University, the Netherlands

Contact and abstract submission: turkey-eu@uvt.nl

Important dates

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 5 March 2012

List of participants finalised: April 2012

Extended abstract submission: June 2012

Paper submission: August 2012

Convenors

Firat Cengiz, Tilburg University, f.cengiz@uvt.nl

Lars Hoffmann, Maastricht University, lars.hoffmann@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Background

It has been almost 50 years since the European Economic Community and Turkey signed the Ankara Association Agreement that was supposed to pave the way to full Turkish membership to today’s EU. Yet, Turkey’s candidate status for membership was approved finally in 1999 and accession negotiations started only in 2005. Moreover, soon after the negotiations faced a stalemate due to Turkey’s refusal to extend the Turkish-EU customs union to the Republic of Cyprus and the EU’s resulting refusal to negotiate accession chapters with regard to internal market. Recent policy developments imply that if Turkish accession is taken seriously, the EU needs to find new strategies to re-energise the accession talks.

Turkey’s role as a Muslim ‘leader of democracy’ renders her a natural partner to western forces to speak to the increasingly western-sceptic peoples of the Middle East, particularly in the wake of the Arab Spring. Likewise, due to its geopolitical position Turkey is seen an indispensible partner for European energy security. The EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Štefan Fühle, speaking on Turkish-EU relations, pointed out that ‘the EU has…repeatedly underlined the importance of progress in the normalisation of relations between Turkey and all European Union Member States, including the Republic of Cyprus’.

Nevertheless, there are significant reasons to doubt whether it is realistic to expect a revitalisation in Turkish-EU relations in the near future. The AKP government in Turkey is going through a confidence boost due to Turkey’s impressive economic performance as the world 17th economy and the party’s recent third consecutive election victory. Consequently, the Turkish government perceives its relationship with the EU more and more as one between equals. This perception does not sit comfortably with the regular dynamics of accession. Likewise, although the EU has been ‘a vocal and often successful advocate for democratization’ in candidate countries (Kubicek 2011), it seem to have lost its leverage over the Turkish political system as illustrated in the 2010 constitutional reform experience. Finally, a number of EU Member States, most notably Austria, France and Germany, remain sceptical of Turkish EU membership due to sociopolitical reasons and campaign for an alternative privileged association framework.

In the midst of these centripetal and centrifugal forces in Turkish-EU relations, we aim to take stock of the Turkish enlargement process and shine such-needed light on different aspects of Turkish accession. In previous accession negotiations the EU has been both ‘the main catalyst and constraining factor’ in regional integration (Bechev 2006). On this basis we aim to disentangle the Turkish-EU relations to detect what both sides can gain from accession and what reform steps have to be taken – both in Ankara and Brussels – to revitalise the Turkish accession talks.

Specific Topics and Questions (non-exclusive)

* Turkey’s regional role: is Turkey’s emerging regional leadership complementary or alternative to its half a century old objective of EU membership? Given this position, what kind of extra incentives can be offered to secure continuing Turkish commitment to EU membership?

* Benefits for the EU Member States: why should Turkish membership matter to the EU and its Member States? Given socio-political cost-benefit structures of both sides how can the sceptical EU Member States be convinced to commit to Turkish membership?

*Cyprus: the Cypriot conflict constitutes the ‘official’ reason for the stalemate in accession negotiations. Given the wide gap between the official position of Turkey in this matter vis-à-vis that of the EU, what kind of short- and medium-term strategies can be offered for the resolution of the current stalemate? Can progress be made in accession talks without the resolution of the Cypriot conflict?

*Democratic conditionality: given the current movement towards authoritarian government and governance in Turkey and despite the stalemate in accession talks, does the EU still enjoy credible leverage with regards the Turkish constitutional reform process? What kind of ‘anchor’ role – if any – can the EU perform concerning issues such as minority protection, electoral fairness, and freedom of expression?

*The Kurdish issue: after the 2011 elections disturbing events took place that increasingly threatened the resolution of the Kurdish issue through democratic methods. What kind of role – if any – can the EU institutions play in securing a return to political talks with the aim to achieve a peaceful and sustainable solution to the Kurdish conflict?

*The role of civil society: EU institutions do not directly engage with civil society in accession countries, apart from operating financial support programs, such as PHARE. Likewise, the Europeanisation literature largely rules out the effectiveness of ‘socialisation’ as a method of integration. However, in the Turkish case, where the process suffers from a lack of commitment from both sides, can civil society constitute a viable partner for the EU to achieve a sustained commitment to Turkish membership? If so, what kind of strategies can the EU institutions adopt for building such a partnership?

Workshop format

The workshop will take place on 21 September 2012. It will be a one-day

workshop with a keynote speech and three panels. We anticipate three papers per panel, as well as a chair and a discussant. We aim to foster debate among the different paper-givers throughout the day, though the workshop will be open to the public.

Output

We aim to publish papers as an edited volume and/or a special journal issue. We contacted international publishing houses and received positive initial responses. After full-length papers are submitted a definitive decision will be taken with regard to the outlet of publication.

Reimbursement policy

Funding for economy travel and accommodation costs (up to two nights in

Tilburg) of speakers may be available.

December 16, 2011
“New” Europe Meets “New” Turkey: A British Future for Ankara?

The emergence of a “new” European Union, in the wake of a sleepless and tumultuous summit held 20 years after the treaty that led to the creation of the political union and the euro currency, was met with ambivalence in Turkey. The irony of Europe’s perennial “sick man” being the most dynamic actor and economy has been widely noted at the same time as Turkey’s own aspirations for membership have waned in recent years. While analysts argue over a common framework for the phenomena sweeping the Mediterranean, commentators across the board have acknowledged that Turkey has been the unambiguous winner of the “Arab Spring” and the “European Fall.”

Since the beginning of the eurozone crisis, Turkey has offered itself as an antidote to an ailing Europe trying to gain strategic leverage to little avail. Echoing a recent refrain, “Hold on, Europe, Turkey is on its way,” Turkish leaders have had little sympathy for Europe’s problems. On the final day of the European Summit, the Turkish president, Abdullah Gül, speaking at the World Policy Conference in Vienna, said that “negligence” is to blame for the financial crisis roiling the European continent, contrasting the EU’s malaise with Turkey’s economic and political dynamism. Seen from Ankara, there is a deficit of political leadership in Europe that has resulted from the bad governance that permeates all aspects of the present crisis. Perhaps if Turkey was on the inside of the EU, it might not have such a harsh view, but its own relations with Brussels have always been complicated.

Turkey, with its combination of economic pragmatism and soft-power appeal as a Muslim-majority secular democracy, has fared much better than a depressed and divided Europe in global affairs, particularly in its own neighborhood. Shedding its former policies of disengagement in its region, Ankara has become the most active European participant over the last decade and, given its close geographic proximities to the “hotspots” of 2011, has become Europe’s most valuable partner in the region.

At a moment in which European leadership is being questioned, Turkey’s newfound swagger and emergence as an international leader should be welcomed as signs of the effectiveness of Europe’s soft-power appeal in institutionalizing and encouraging a more responsible partner in regional stability and long-term democratization. Double standards and contradictions, motivated by domestic, economic, or geopolitical interests nonetheless remain in the foreign policies of Turkey and other European countries. To the extent that Europe is defined as a set of principles and value, the very challenge with Turkey is applying these standards consistently and universally in constructing a viable partnership that is consequential, flexible, and mutually beneficial.

Now that Europe has come closer together, the question of what to do about Turkey’s eternal quest for membership will gain further traction and the example of Britain might offer an interesting opportunity for another strategically important yet Euroskeptic regional power in Ankara. Rather than seeing Turkey’s growing international role as a challenge or mere hubris, it should be taken as an opportunity to reinforce Turkey’s European credentials, which makes it a unique and flexible potential new member.

via Joshua W. Walker: “New” Europe Meets “New” Turkey: A British Future for Ankara?.

December 13, 2011
For Turkey, lure of EU is fast fading

Dan Bilefsky, NYT:

Turkey’s economy is projected to grow at a 7.5 per cent annual rate while Europe’s are sputtering.

As economic contagion tarnishes the European Union, a newly assertive Turkey is increasingly looking east instead of west, and asking a vexing question: Should Turkey reject Europe before Europe rejects Turkey? When Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the charismatic prime minister, first swept to power in 2002, he made Turkey’s entry into the EU his overriding goal. Determined to anchor the country to the West, Erdogan’s Muslim-inspired Justice and Development Party tackled thorny issues like improving minority rights and easing restrictions on free speech to move Turkey closer to Western norms.

But Turkey’s bid got anything but a warm reception from many members of the union, not least because of Turkey’s large, almost entirely Muslim population. The negotiations dragged on endlessly without ever yielding a clear pathway to membership.

Weilding nee clout

Now it is Turkey that has soured on the idea, analysts here say. With Europe roiled by a spiraling credit crisis and the tumult of the Arab Spring creating opportunities for Turkey to wield new clout as a regional power, people here are weighing a step that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago: walking away from the EU altogether.

“Prime Minister Erdogan wanted to be the first conservative Muslim leader who would bring Turkey to the West, but after Europe betrayed him, he abandoned those ambitions,” said Erol Yarar, the founder of a religiously conservative business group of 20,000 companies that is close to the prime minister. “Today, the EU has absolutely no influence over Turkey, and most Turks are asking themselves, ‘Why should we be part of such a mess?”’

Turkey’s increasingly muscular foreign policy in the Middle East was in evidence last week when it imposed tough sanctions on Syria and made preparations for possible military intervention. And Turkey has become a powerful voice of regional outrage over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, especially since it froze its ties with Israel over a deadly commando raid on a flotilla of vessels that tried to reach Gaza from Turkey.

Meanwhile, Turkish officials say relations with the EU have reached a state of hopeless disrepair, made worse by the prospect of Cyprus taking over the rotating presidency of the union next year.

Turkey has been locked in an intractable political fight with Cyprus since 1974, when it invaded the island to prevent a proposed union with Greece and set up a rival government in the ethnic Turkish part of Cyprus that only it recognizes. In London last month, President Abdullah Gul disparaged Cyprus as “half a country” that would lead a “miserable union,” Milliyet, a Turkish newspaper, reported. Then, when France took the unusual step last week of proposing that Turkey be invited to take part in a meeting of the union’s foreign ministers to discuss Syria, Cyprus vetoed the idea.

A century ago when the Ottoman Empire was crumbling, Turkey acquired the unwelcome nickname “the sick man of Europe.” Now many Turks cannot help but gloat that Turkey’s economy is projected to grow at a 7.5 per cent annual growth rate this year while Europe’s are sputtering.

Public opinion in Turkey has already turned away. According to surveys by the German Marshall Fund, 73 percent of Turks saw membership as a good thing in 2004, but only 38 percent felt that way by 2010.

The country’s minister for EU affairs, Egemen Bagis, said in an interview that Turkey remained committed to joining. With its young and dynamic work force, large domestic market and growing regional role, he said, Turkey would be a bigger asset than ever to the teetering union.

Cooler relations with Turkey are costing Europe influence in the Arab world, where Turkey, a NATO member bordered by Iran, Iraq and Syria, is fast becoming an important interlocutor for the West. For the first time in decades, analysts say, Europe needs Turkey more than Turkey needs Europe.

To the protesters in the streets of Cairo or Tripoli or Homs, Erdogan, a pious Muslim leading a prosperous country of 78 million, is a powerful symbol of the compatibility of democracy and Islam, while Europe’s perceived hostility to its Muslim residents undercuts its influence in the region.

Senior Turkish officials say Erdogan himself has turned away from Europe and embraced Washington instead, a development signaled by Turkey’s announcement of sanctions against Syria. While Erdogan coordinated closely on the issue with President Barack Obama, the officials said, Europe played only a supporting role.

via For Turkey, lure of EU is fast fading.

December 9, 2011
Turkey do not need EU, it is the other way round!

Jan: “Turkey do not need EU, it is the other way round!”
Posted by Cem on 06/12/11

I wish I suggested this great exchange that I had with Jan which dates back to last September (I should have done that with several former comments):

“jan

Comment by jan | 2011/09/25 at 02:01:27

Turkey should not join the EU at all because there is no benefit whatsoever towards Turkey other than lifting visa requirements to visit Europe. As for economy gain, there’s no such gain because once Turkey joined, it will be used to the ground because it looks as if Turkey is so desperate to do and give anything which the EU demand like being held on a rope. They will never see Turkey as one of them or equal because regardless to them it will always be a Muslim country or exucse wise huge population compared to others which threaten them. Turkey should just maintain business relations rather than being one of them. For economy gain, there are many ways for Turkey to have a stronger economy or bring more businesses into its country. Turkey does not have weak currency, or going into crisis like Greece or any of the European countries.
If Turkey is able to change, why it NEEDS to join EU in order to change? Why have your country to be run by someone else or constantly having people to tell you what to do in order to be one of them. Turkey do not need EU, it is the other way round! Why sell yourself short? In the process of joining EU, Turkey has prove itself to the WORLD not just EU that it is not like any of the Muslim country. It is a democratic country and everyone has the right to vote including women. Being able to NOT run it’s country using religion, unlike some countries, I think that says alot about Turkey. It has full credit of being a country that sets full example to the rest of the world. I hope Turkey government is able to re-consider their decision.”

“Cem

Comment by Cem | 2011/09/25 at 12:40:43

Hello jan,

I quote you:

Turkey should not join the EU at all because there is no benefit whatsoever towards Turkey other than lifting visa requirements to visit Europe.

Very well said. Very well said!

Many say that Turkey’s first trading partner is the EU hence it has to be an EU member.

Well Turkey is not currently an EU member but that doesn’t prevent it from trading with the EU. Anyway, in the first instance the world economy is shifting to Asia. In the second instance, the EU population is ageing.

As for economy gain, there’s no such gain because once Turkey joined, it will be used to the ground because it looks as if Turkey is so desperate to do and give anything which the EU demand like being held on a rope.

The EU is exactly doing that regarding the chapter on competition of the EU-Turkey negotiations. Zafer Çağlayan denounced that a few months ago http://turkey.blogactiv.eu/2011/05/16/za… (Article in Turkish, but it’s worth seeing the caricature of the current EU!)) and said that the EU is hypocritical and that Turkey will not obey the EU blindly. In fact, he stated that the EU blocks almost all the chapters but absolutely wants to open the chapter on competition. The EU is behaving like a carpet dealer.

They will never see Turkey as one of them or equal because regardless to them it will always be a Muslim country or exucse wise huge population compared to others which threaten them.

I think that once (Turkey) an EU member the situation will dramatically change. Turkey will improve the EU parliament.

Turkey should just maintain business relations rather than being one of them.

I believe that thanks to Turkey’s EU membership the EU will at last become the blacksmith of the peace in the globe. That is the only reason for which I do support Turkey’s EU memberhsip. Really. Turkey’s EU membership will be a strong political and cultural tool that will help humanity.

Turkey will take advantage of the EU funds but it will also be a huge contributor to the EU budget. Turkey will become a very rich country. And according to the excellent Kemal Derviş, Turkey will be rich earlier than expected.

I support Turkey’s EU membership, but owing to the disgusting racism, double standards and blatant treacherousness of the EU, I want Turkey not to receive the EU funds but at the same time not to contribute to the EU budget. That is my wish as a Turkish citizen whose heart is broken.

For economy gain, there are many ways for Turkey to have a stronger economy or bring more businesses into its country. Turkey does not have weak currency, or going into crisis like Greece or any of the European countries.

A British insitution said a few months ago (I don’t remember which one, I should have kept the link) that the EU is jealous of the economic performance of Turkey.

If Turkey is able to change, why it NEEDS to join EU in order to change?

You’re right, nowadays Turkey doesn’t need to join the EU to change. Notwithstanding, with regard to several chapters such as environment or food saftey, the negotiations process (not the EU membership) is vital.

Why have your country to be run by someone else or constantly having people to tell you what to do in order to be one of them. Turkey do not need EU, it is the other way round!

In fact, the politicians Olli Rehn, Günter Verheugen and Jack Straw underlined that too. The English economist Roger Bootle also stated that. Lastly, Uli Dönch, a German journalist, wrote that too on September 22nd 2011: I quote Turkish newspaper Dünya English that refered to the article published by Focus magazine:

Stating that Europe, consisting of an old population, needs Turkey more than Turkey needs Europe, Dönch indicated that Turkey enjoys great economic data, educated and hard-working young population. He added that the rapidly growing and improving Turkey wouldn’t wait in front of Europe’s door for a long time and suggested that Europe becomes Turkey’s partner, instead of being a slave to Greece.

I quote you dear jan:

Why sell yourself short? In the process of joining EU, Turkey has prove itself to the WORLD not just EU that it is not like any of the Muslim country. It is a democratic country and everyone has the right to vote including women. Being able to NOT run it’s country using religion, unlike some countries, I think that says alot about Turkey.

Thank you very much.

The Turkish women had the right to vote well before the French and Suiss women.

There are only 3 secular countries in Europe: France, Portugal and Turkey. Surprising but true!

It has full credit of being a country that sets full example to the rest of the world. I hope Turkey government is able to re-consider their decision.

Dear jan, a referendum will be held in Turkey at the end of the EU-Turkey negotiations. Turkey’s EU membership is strategic for the Turkish leaders. But the Turkish citizens may vote “No” through the referendum. And you introduced the reasons of that “No” through your comment my friend.

Yours sincerely,

Cem”

I also like Civitas’ comment that brightened the horizon.

Yours faithfully,

Cem

From the blog archive at turkey.blogactiv.eu

December 7, 2011