NOT A DATE, BUT NEGOTIATIONS

They all said that they were impressed by the government’s determination. Recently the EU started to give us some hope and optimism on our membership bid. Their messages have been optimistic, but there’s an important issue in this happiness, namely understanding each other. Europe wants us to implement reforms as soon as possible, that is, ensuring a sound judiciary, a solution to the Cyprus issue, etc. All this still holds. But they haven’t understood us completely, because there’s nothing clear yet on a very sensitive issue. ‘Please don’t talk about a date for membership negotiations,’ warned Lule. Indeed, sometimes there’s even discussion of giving us a date for membership negotiations at top-level meetings.

We received a date for a date at the Copenhagen summit last year. If we can fulfill the Copenhagen criteria, the EU will decide at its year-end summit to start membership negotiations with Turkey. We want not a date, but the beginning of negotiations from the EU. I don’t mean that the messages from the EU are insincere. Recently European politicians have started to see that Turkey would boost the EU’s influence in the region. A Europe including Turkey would be stronger in terms of security and foreign policy. We’ve been getting positive signals. However, it’s important to understand the other side’s words and expectations as well as to explain our wishes, so that we’re not disappointed.”