TURKEY MAKES LITTLE PROGRESS TOWARDS EU DREAM
By Christopher Wade
Kuwait Times
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Dec 16 2008
Kuwait
As political distractions go, the court case to close down Turkey’s
ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was up there with the
biggest. Ever since the Constitutional Court, in a case called by the
party’s political opponents, decided in July not to close down the AKP,
momentum toward joining the EU seems to have stalled. In September,
the EU issued its progress report on Turkey’s membership bid. For
supporters of Turkish membership it was depressing reading.
The report lists in detail the areas where Turkey has failed to move:
no progress on lifting immunity of parliamentarians; no progress on
strengthening parliamentary oversight over public expenditure; limited
progress in the area of anti-corruption; no progress on ensuring
cultural diversity; and failure to adequately monitor legal changes
designed to stop torture. "Despite its strong political mandate,
the government did not put forward a consistent and comprehensive
program of political reforms," the rep ort said.
The failures have led to a loss in support from liberal circles,
who believed that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had
abandoned his party’s roots in Islamic politics and was truly committed
to pursuing Turkey’s bid to join the EU. Whilst the court case was
cited by pro-government circles as a major reason why reforms had
slowed down, one hint that the government was ready to junk major
reforms came separately, when the ruling administration abandoned
plans to overhaul the 1982 military- impose d constitution to focus
on legislation allowing women to wear Islamic-style headscarves
at universities.
With the help of a far-right party, which vehemently opposed a new
constitution, the AKP managed to make constitutional changes to allow
the headscarf to be worn at tertiary institutions. These changes were
later thrown out by the Constitutional Court, which said they were
against the principles of secular state. Some point out that the
government has made reforms to some of the most notorious articles
of the criminal code, in particular Article 301, which makes it a
crime to "insult Turkishness or state i nstitutions.
The article is often used to silence writers. But the reforms
have merely been window dressing, according to many commentators
and EU politicians. "They changed Article 301, but then opened 47
cases," European parliamentarian Joost Lagendijk said in Ankara in
November. Lagendijk was referring to the fact that it is now up to
the Justice Minister to personally approve any prosecutions. "The
prior authorization requirement opens up the possibility that the
article will become subject to political considerati on," the EU
progress report said.
In one case, authorization has been given for charges to be laid
against a Turkish writer who said that the massacres of Armenians
during the First World War constituted genocide. For some the
government’s lack of progress shows that the AKP has never really
believed in Turkey joining the European Union. "The (AKP) duck behind
the European Union negotiations so that no one can accuse them of
having Islamist tendencies," said Hasan Unal, a professor at Gazi
University in Ankaar, who argues that the AKP itse lf does not believe
in European values and culture.
They don’t believe in the European process, but they have to keep
it going." Local elections are coming up in March and the AKP
has high hopes of wrestling victories in some big municipalities
across Turkey. With polls showing a drop in the public’s support
for Turkey’s EU bid, it is doubtful the government will make any big
moves soon. That does not sit well with Europeans who would like to
see bolder moves out of Ankara. "The Turkish government does not have
the luxury of delaying reforms by using the l ocal elections as an
excuse," said Lagendijk.
Then there is the world financial crisis that may result in the
government going slow on reform. "The crisis couldn’t have come to
Turkey at any time worse than this for the AKP," Unal said. One issue
that has not been debated much in Turkey is the refusal of Turkey
to recognize EU member Cyprus, nor to allow Cypriot shipping to use
Turkish ports. The issue has resulted in the EU suspending accession
talks in eight policy areas and hampers Turkey’s efforts to push
membership talks further.
There is no prospect of the government budging on the issue until a
solution is found to the Cyprus problem. Unal says that the government
would be committing "political suicide" if it allowed Greek Cypriot
ships into Turkish ports. To use a phrase that was used over and over
again in the EU’s Sepember report, "little progress has been made." The
question now is whether the government, now seven years old and showing
increasing signs of tiredness, is ready for a new push in 2009. – dpa