Aljazeera.net, Qatar
Nov 10 2006
Turkish complexities confound EU
By Jody Sabral
The European Commission’s annual report on Turkey’s progress towards
EU membership, released earlier this week, has criticised Ankara’s
pace of reforms, but has not brought to light new challenges since
accession talks began in October 2005.
This is the view of Ali Yurttagul, a member of the European
parliament and expert on asylum and immigration to Turkey.
“In 2004, the EU’s report on Turkey, which wasn’t really a progress
report in the same sense, was very positive. The main message of this
new report is the slowdown in pace of implementation, a stagnation if
you will,” Yurttagul said.
The 2006 report said that the Turkish Grand National Assembly adopted
148 laws of a total 429 draft bills submitted since October 2005.
Ibrahim Gunel, a columnist at the Turkish daily Radikal, believes the
EU has very high expectations of Ankara, but does not really
comprehend its complexities.
He explains that Turkey’s majority Muslim composition and its secular
democracy make it a unique country.
The report also described the prosecutions and convictions for the
expression of non-violent opinion as “a cause for serious concern”.
“We are open to concrete proposals that will make clear the line
between the crimes stipulated under article 301 and the right to
criticism”
Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
Turkish prime minister
The case of Hrant Dink, a journalist who has openly written about
Armenian identity, is one example from a list of hundreds of writers,
publishers, academics, journalists and human rights activists who
have been prosecuted under article 301 of the new penal code.
Charged with insulting Turkish identity for writing a series of
articles on the Armenian genocide, the article allowed a court to
hand Dink down a six-month suspended prison sentence on October 7.
The Turkish government has always rejected Armenian demands that the
loss of two million lives under the Ottoman empire can be described
as genocide.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, has since said that
the government might consider amending article 301.
“We are open to concrete proposals that will make clear the line
between the crimes stipulated under article 301 and the right to
criticism,” he said in a speech to the public.
Erdogan gave no indication as to when article 301 would be taken up
in parliament, only that the “opposition” was behind the move.
He did indicate, however, that it would take time as “a change in
mentality [among the judiciary] is needed to do that because it’s the
job of people to implement laws. It’s a process that takes time”.
In response to this new approach to freedom of speech in Turkey,
Yurttagul said: “The commission has noted that Ankara is willing to
modify article 301, and it is appreciated, but it wants to see
concrete steps. We don’t know in which direction it will be modified
yet.”
The report, while crediting Turkey for reform in the area of
civil-military relations, also said that overall “limited progress”
had been made in aligning civil-military relations with EU practices.
To understand Turkey’s relationship with the military is to
understand the very foundations of the modern republic. Turkey is a
99.8% per cent Muslim country, but operates as a secular state with
religion kept strictly out of politics.
“Erdogan has hit a wall on Cyprus, he cannot make more concessions.
After voting ‘yes’ to the Annan plan, there is nowhere to go. Europe
has to give Turkey something in return”
Hasan Unal, a scholar at Bilkent University, Ankara
This foundation was first laid in 1923 when the republic was
established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a military man with democratic
principles.
Turkish women were given the right to vote two years before their
British counterparts in 1926 under Ataturk’s governance.
The military is therefore seen as a beacon of democracy and
secularism, which safeguards the republic from becoming a theocracy
like Iran. Any attack on the military is, unsurprisingly, seen as an
attack on these principles.
Hasan Unal, a scholar at Bilkent University in Ankara, said: “EU
countries don’t understand how important the military is in Turkey.
The republic was set up by it. The military is the most modern and
progressive part of the Turkish regime.”
Many Turks are concerned that if the military were to lose more
power, particularly to the Islamist-leaning ruling Justice and
Development party (AKP), the secular lifestyle they enjoy could be
under threat.
These concerns were highlighted when the education ministry took over
four years ago from the ministry of religious affairs the
responsibility of overseeing all religious textbooks for elementary
and high schools nationwide.
Stuck on Cyprus
But the most contentious issue may lie outside Turkey’s borders.
The 2006 report issued earlier also set a deadline for Turkey to open
its ports to Greek Cypriot ships and flights by mid-December or face
consequences.
Most Turks are tired of hearing about the Cyprus issue as they
believe that it is just a sticking point that the EU uses to
frustrate Turkey’s struggle to be accepted.
This is especially true since Turkish Cypriots voted “yes” in 2004 to
a plan by Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary-general, to bring
about reunification to the divided island.
Greek Cypriots, by contrast, voted “no”.
In response, the Turkish government said that “the Cyprus question is
a political question and is not an obligation in the context of our
accession process”.
Erdogan dismissed the possible collapse of the talks because of the
Cyprus impasse, but acknowledged that some “chapters” might be held
back.
Analysts believe that it might be a stumbling block, but that Erdogan
has no cards left to play on the issue.
“Erdogan has hit a wall on Cyprus, he cannot make more concessions.
After voting ‘yes’ to the Annan plan, there is nowhere to go. Europe
has to give Turkey something in return,” Unal said.
However, Gunel disagrees on this point. He believes the Cyprus issue
could be solved by a change of leadership.
“Turkey accepted the Annan plan, but the Greek Cypriot president
Tassos Papadopulous rejected it. If Papadopulous was to fall from
power, the problem could be solved.”
Gunel said the stalemate had become more entrenched after the EU
failed to keep its promise to end the economic isolation of northern
Cyprus.
“According to the Nice Convention [one of the founding principles of
the EU], Cyprus should not even really be a member of the EU as it
quite clearly states if a country has a border problem it can not be
accepted as an EU member,” he said.
The southern part of the island, which is governed by Greece, joined
the EU in May 2004.
For now, Turks will have to wait for the outcome of the December
talks in which 25 European leaders will discuss their EU path before
anything more can be said about accession.
Friday 10 November 2006, 14:08 Makka Time, 11:08 GMT
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