REACTIONS TO MERKEL

Schroeder is expected to underline his ruling Social Democrats’ support for Turkey’s European Union membership bid. When I spoke to him recently, European Parliament Deputy Ozan Ceyhun said that, Merkel’s attitude notwithstanding, there has been no change in Berlin’s EU policy towards Turkey, and that Schroeder would show this clearly. While Turkey doesn’t want to make talks over Cyprus political fodder for local elections in March, the ‘timetable for negotiations’ which the EU may give Turkey in December has already split Germany into two in the runup to this June’s European Parliament elections. Merkel’s hasty visit to Ankara before Schroeder and her ‘special partnership’ proposal was nothing more than a ploy for votes. After Germany’s unification, Berlin raised no objection to the EU’s eastern enlargement as far as Poland, but now it is bearing the heavy economic costs of this. The reasons for frustrating Turkey’s EU goals are more economic than political. With its 70 million population, Turkey could take a big bite, never mind the eastern European countries! However, there are transitional periods of up to seven years for new EU members in some areas such as free movement, with Poland for example. As EU Commissioner Guenter Verheugen rebuffed Merkel, Turkey, with its customs union agreement with the EU, is already a ‘special partner.’ The important thing is to pave the way for political unity. With the June EP elections drawing near, debates in Germany about Turkey will grow louder. The ruling Social Democrats’ goal is to capture more that 30 percent of the vote.

Getting back to reactions to Merkel… One of the most striking comments came from The Wall Street Journal’s European edition. An editorial accused Merkel of dishonesty in saying, ‘Nobody is being honest towards Turkey. Other issues are discussed behind closed doors, and we can’t give Ankara full membership.’ Yes nobody is claiming that Turkey would become an EU member overnight. However, the economic reasons cited by the Christian Democrats are nothing but pretexts to conceal their cultural prejudices.”