Halt this malicious EU process
tr22 November 2006 '
The New Anatolian
Hasan Unal
hasanu@bilkent.edu.tr
The latest polls strongly suggest that the Turkish people are now vehemently opposed, either to the European Union accession process currently underway, or the EU membership of Turkey altogether. Obviously, the whole project has gone down the drain. According to most EU enthusiasts, some years back, a large majority of the people was in support of EU membership. Their polls indicated that public support for the EU membership stood at about 70 to 82 percent for years. Over the last few years, however, this support has eroded, trickling down to 30 percent, at most. And, should the question be asked more specifically, with a view to finding out the public mood as to whether or not the people would condone any major concession on Cyprus or Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)-related matters in return for the continuation of the EU process, the nays are almost one hundred percent.
Now, the EU authorities, Turkey's useless Euro-enthusiasts, who go to, say, London, Paris or Brussels and gasp with admiration for Europe, and who in an exaggerated way talk about European prosperity, as well as the Turkish chattering classes, are not sanguine about the process. They are all shocked. What's gone wrong? The answer is clear: The Turkish public was inclined to view the EU and the EU process in a positive way initially. Should EU membership be attainable, and should this process produce investment, new jobs and a better economic climate, why not? And the chattering classes presented the EU as the only answer to all the ills of the economy.
They would say, look at the Greeks, the Portuguese and the Spaniards; they have sucked all the goodies from the German cornucopia. We should follow the same path: We'll lead a wonderful life, as the Europeans will shower us in money. All we need to do is to bring our democracy in line with Europe, apply human rights, curb the military's power in politics and protect existing minorities.
But, as the process got underway, the people realized that the EU honeypot was already empty, and that there would come no proper EU investment into the country, creating new jobs etc., apart from those who only come to buy the most profitable Turkish companies, and the people also realized that the incumbent government was using this process to restructure Turkey in the most undesirable way, and that, should the process be allowed to continue unchecked, the country would not be necessarily a Europeanized Turkey.
Meanwhile, the Pandora's box opened and all the unacceptable dictates of Europe spilled over the desk. As the latest progress report on Turkey, which the EU Commission released on Nov. 8, demonstrates in a strongly worded fashion, Turkey should implement the Additional Protocol in full, opening its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot shipping and civil aviation. As a result, this would cripple the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) economically, politically, diplomatically and psychologically. And Turkey should "normalize" its relations with all the members of the EU, including what the EU calls unjustly the "Republic of Cyprus" into the bargain.
This is not the only trouble. The report dwelt upon the Aegean dispute and the necessity to resolve it in a way satisfactory to the Greeks. The Armenian genocide claims together with the demand that Turkey should open its border gate to Armenia are inserted in all the European Parliament's resolutions on Turkey, and Ankara was forced to make good on these resolutions as part of the Negotiating Framework Document. And evidently, the demands about sharing the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates are creeping up.
Internal demands are not any less onerous. We should immediately set about creating new minorities in addition to those already recognized by Turkey. A new framework on the basis of ethnicity, linguistic and racial differences should be adopted, paving the way for the creation of Kurdish and Alevi minorities and, perhaps, many others. This can hardly be considered a benign demand, because the Copenhagen criteria talk about the protection of existing minorities, not about the creation of new ones. Should this request be complied with, Turkey would find itself in an ethnic inferno. EU demands on civil-military relations are flimsy and inconclusive, while the part about religious freedoms is full of Christian biases of a Medieval kind.
A close examination of all these reports of the last few years, as well as EU Presidential Conclusion of Dec. 17, 2004 and the Negotiating Framework Document of Oct. 5, 2005, and the comparison of these with those of the newly member states and the ones currently negotiating with the EU, would indicate that the EU has had no intention whatsoever to let Turkey in. Instead of citing fundamental questions in the way of Turkish membership, however, it comes up with excuses and unacceptable demands, trying to push Ankara out of the process of its own choice.
It is clear that this is not a benign process that could continue for years but instead a very malicious one. And if it persists, it could derail Turkey's modernization and destroy its links to the West, given that the anti-Western winds are blowing very strongly among the people. The ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party government started out this process in order to what they call "restructure" Turkey in their own way, and the EU tried all its tactics to wrench major concessions out of Turkey. The "liberal" ideas have been exhausted with no avail.
Now is the time for people of courage, determination and broad-mindedness. Let's not wreck the ship by insisting on what is not achievable, i.e. full membership of Turkey. Let's conclude a special status with flesh and bones on it that would replace the Customs Union, while keeping trade and economic relations going. But first and foremost, halt this malicious process!
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
The New Anatolian
Hasan Unal
hasanu@bilkent.edu.tr
The latest polls strongly suggest that the Turkish people are now vehemently opposed, either to the European Union accession process currently underway, or the EU membership of Turkey altogether. Obviously, the whole project has gone down the drain. According to most EU enthusiasts, some years back, a large majority of the people was in support of EU membership. Their polls indicated that public support for the EU membership stood at about 70 to 82 percent for years. Over the last few years, however, this support has eroded, trickling down to 30 percent, at most. And, should the question be asked more specifically, with a view to finding out the public mood as to whether or not the people would condone any major concession on Cyprus or Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)-related matters in return for the continuation of the EU process, the nays are almost one hundred percent.
Now, the EU authorities, Turkey's useless Euro-enthusiasts, who go to, say, London, Paris or Brussels and gasp with admiration for Europe, and who in an exaggerated way talk about European prosperity, as well as the Turkish chattering classes, are not sanguine about the process. They are all shocked. What's gone wrong? The answer is clear: The Turkish public was inclined to view the EU and the EU process in a positive way initially. Should EU membership be attainable, and should this process produce investment, new jobs and a better economic climate, why not? And the chattering classes presented the EU as the only answer to all the ills of the economy.
They would say, look at the Greeks, the Portuguese and the Spaniards; they have sucked all the goodies from the German cornucopia. We should follow the same path: We'll lead a wonderful life, as the Europeans will shower us in money. All we need to do is to bring our democracy in line with Europe, apply human rights, curb the military's power in politics and protect existing minorities.
But, as the process got underway, the people realized that the EU honeypot was already empty, and that there would come no proper EU investment into the country, creating new jobs etc., apart from those who only come to buy the most profitable Turkish companies, and the people also realized that the incumbent government was using this process to restructure Turkey in the most undesirable way, and that, should the process be allowed to continue unchecked, the country would not be necessarily a Europeanized Turkey.
Meanwhile, the Pandora's box opened and all the unacceptable dictates of Europe spilled over the desk. As the latest progress report on Turkey, which the EU Commission released on Nov. 8, demonstrates in a strongly worded fashion, Turkey should implement the Additional Protocol in full, opening its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot shipping and civil aviation. As a result, this would cripple the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) economically, politically, diplomatically and psychologically. And Turkey should "normalize" its relations with all the members of the EU, including what the EU calls unjustly the "Republic of Cyprus" into the bargain.
This is not the only trouble. The report dwelt upon the Aegean dispute and the necessity to resolve it in a way satisfactory to the Greeks. The Armenian genocide claims together with the demand that Turkey should open its border gate to Armenia are inserted in all the European Parliament's resolutions on Turkey, and Ankara was forced to make good on these resolutions as part of the Negotiating Framework Document. And evidently, the demands about sharing the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates are creeping up.
Internal demands are not any less onerous. We should immediately set about creating new minorities in addition to those already recognized by Turkey. A new framework on the basis of ethnicity, linguistic and racial differences should be adopted, paving the way for the creation of Kurdish and Alevi minorities and, perhaps, many others. This can hardly be considered a benign demand, because the Copenhagen criteria talk about the protection of existing minorities, not about the creation of new ones. Should this request be complied with, Turkey would find itself in an ethnic inferno. EU demands on civil-military relations are flimsy and inconclusive, while the part about religious freedoms is full of Christian biases of a Medieval kind.
A close examination of all these reports of the last few years, as well as EU Presidential Conclusion of Dec. 17, 2004 and the Negotiating Framework Document of Oct. 5, 2005, and the comparison of these with those of the newly member states and the ones currently negotiating with the EU, would indicate that the EU has had no intention whatsoever to let Turkey in. Instead of citing fundamental questions in the way of Turkish membership, however, it comes up with excuses and unacceptable demands, trying to push Ankara out of the process of its own choice.
It is clear that this is not a benign process that could continue for years but instead a very malicious one. And if it persists, it could derail Turkey's modernization and destroy its links to the West, given that the anti-Western winds are blowing very strongly among the people. The ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party government started out this process in order to what they call "restructure" Turkey in their own way, and the EU tried all its tactics to wrench major concessions out of Turkey. The "liberal" ideas have been exhausted with no avail.
Now is the time for people of courage, determination and broad-mindedness. Let's not wreck the ship by insisting on what is not achievable, i.e. full membership of Turkey. Let's conclude a special status with flesh and bones on it that would replace the Customs Union, while keeping trade and economic relations going. But first and foremost, halt this malicious process!
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Labels: Turkey's EU Accession
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