Turkish PM basks in EU triumph
Nicolas Rothwell, Middle East correspondent
The Australian
Dec 20 2004
TURKEY’S reformist Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the man behind
his country’s successful bid to stage an entry to the European club,
returned home to his capital in triumph yesterday, and basked in a
ticker-tape parade before his jubilant supporters.
Mr Erdogan, a convinced democrat at the head of an Islamic-flavoured
party, was greeted by thousands in Ankara’s central square.
Confetti filled the air, and fireworks were let off in broad daylight
as he addressed the crowds in near-freezing temperatures.
The celebrations capped a week of high tension as the Turks watched
the progress of the Brussels summit, where Ankara’s bid to secure a
date for accession talks with the European Union was almost derailed
at the last moment.
Mr Erdogan, a politician who combines pragmatism and intense emotional
commitment, seized the high ground at once on his return, committing
his Government and nation to the path of continued social reforms
and economic development.
Despite fringe protests by hard-line leftists and right-wing
nationalists, Mr Erdogan stands at the head of a united country,
and his authority, after the drama of the Brussels summit and his
high-octane performance there, stands at a new level.
“Turkey has now turned a critical corner,” Mr Erdogan proclaimed,
to rolling cheers, as his listeners waved the Turkish flag and the
European Union banner.
“Our road is open, and you should not have any doubt about it. From
now on, democracy will have a different meaning – human rights and
freedoms will be practised in a more meaningful manner, and the economy
will perform better. Turkey will take its rightful place among modern
and civilised countries.”
These heady claims, and the general atmosphere of euphoria, have
combined to make this an extraordinary time across the diverse
nation of 70 million people, stretching from the frontiers of Iran
and Armenia to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
Unalloyed national exultation of this kind has not been seen in Europe
since the collapse of Eastern communism in 1989.
Mr Erdogan’s words, and his broad message of progress, repeated
constantly in recent weeks, places him firmly in the tradition of the
nation’s Westernising founder, Kemal Ataturk, whose name has been on
everybody’s lips in recent days.
Mr Erdogan himself, in his proud and controlled performance at his
first press conference after the EU decision, pointedly invoked
Ataturk, and referred to Turkey’s European trajectory as a “second
great national revolution”.
Mr Erdogan’s work, though, is only just beginning. European leaders,
still sceptical about the implications of admitting a vast, rapidly
expanding and still-developing Muslim state into their union, have
stressed it may take 15 years before full membership is possible,
and they have refused to guarantee a successful conclusion to the
Turkish negotiations.
The critical stumbling block at the summit was Ankara’s position
on Cyprus.
Turkey occupies the northern part of the island and has for decades
refused to recognise the southern Republic of Cyprus – a full EU
member since May this year.
By giving an oral pledge on Friday to expand an EU trade protocol,
Ankara provided an intent to grant technical recognition to Cyprus,
and this highly unpopular concession will have to be finessed through
parliament by the Erdogan Government before the formal talks with
Europe begin on 3 October 2005.
“Our sensitivity about the issue is beyond comparison,” Mr Erdogan
insisted, while his Foreign Minister and key lieutenant in the talks,
Abdullah Gul, stressed there would be no recognition of Cyprus until
a lasting solution to the island’s political impasse has been found.
Turkey’s treatment of its Kurdish minority also remains a chief
concern of EU member states, and assuaging European doubts on this
front will be one of the main tasks of the Government in Ankara over
the years ahead.
Kurdish leaders placed advertisements in European papers last week
appealing for quasi-autonomous status for the region: a move the
Turks will not condone, given their sensitivity to the threat of
territorial carve-up and the distinct possibility a Kurdish state
may emerge across the border in the north of war-torn Iraq.
Turkey under Mr Erdogan has transformed conditions in the Kurdish
southeastern region by permitting the public use of the Kurdish
language and removing pressure on Kurdish political leaders.
Mr Erdogan also faces the difficult task of maintaining his country’s
strong, and newly revived, sense of national unity during a period
of further sharp social and economic changes. He addressed this
point obliquely yesterday in pledging that all Turks, those from the
rural far east as much as those from the busy metropolis of Istanbul,
were of equal value.
Hard days lie ahead, as even Mr Erdogan’s most ardent admirers in
Turkey’s fractious media concede: the road before the country in its
bid for full admittance to the EU is still a long one.
But the sense of delight and fulfilment is keen, after almost four
decades of slow progress towards this goal. “We succeeded,” exclaimed
the weekend edition of the leading newspaper, Hurriyet – and of that,
at least, there could be no doubt.
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