A new era with the EU

Cyprus was one of the important issues of the summit. To summarize, I saw the EU affair as: Ankara Treaty forms the basis of relations with Turkey; Turkey does not let Greek Cyprus sign the treaty; Turkey does not officially recognize Greek Cyprus; several problems exist between Turkey and Greek Cyprus and under such conditions Turkey needs to recognize Greek Cyprus.

Turkey overcame this problem. Surprisingly, Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos was the one who helped Turkey the most in overcoming it. His obstructionist attitude removed all the hurdles one by one.

Papadopoulos, who forced Greek Cypriots to vote “no” in the April, 2004, referendum through “state terrorism,” isolated his country and proved how right Turkish Cypriots were in their demands, couldn’t use his veto card once during the one-and-a-half-day negotiation period. His efforts to use hundreds of millions of Europeans in order to further the cause of Cypriot Hellenism failed to produce any positive result.

The EU stance in the affair was clearer: EU Commissioner Gunter Verheugen, who believed Greek Cypriots had deceived the EU, wanted them to pay the price. The huge potential of Turkey couldn’t be sacrificed to an administration governing just 700,000 people.

That’s why while Papadopoulos sighed with his veto card his pocket and Turkey overcame the problem by just giving a verbal promise. Giving verbal and written promises is a common thing in diplomacy; indeed, Turkey must have given hundreds to the EU by now.

Towards the end of the month, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will come up with a new plan. It will be a little different from the one put to the original referenda. Before Oct. 3 Turkey will sign an Ankara Treaty with Greek Cyprus and Papadopoulos may be the one who will sign the treaty. He may even be the joint president of the new Cyprus. It doesn’t matter who they are, but one thing is certain, the Cyprus that signs the treaty won’t be the same as that of today.

When one looks at other issues such as “open-ended negotiations,” limits imposed upon freedom of movement and the objective of the negotiations, the commission and the council refrained from taking any responsibility and left the challenge to future governments.

Actually, there is no reason to relax, even if membership is guaranteed, because it would have been very hard to keep this promise.

It appears the negotiations will be open-ended, but they will be held with membership in mind. Only if Turkey decides not to become a member will other options be considered. Limits imposed upon the freedom of movement won’t be permanent.

In hindsight, Dec. 17 can be seen as a summit where comical fears of the EU dominated the agenda. Because, even though the negotiations will be tough, the result could become something even the EU can be proud of. Continued reforms and political and economic stability may even endear Turkey to the French and Austrian public.

If Japan were in Turkey’s place, the EU wouldn’t have objected to their membership on religious or cultural grounds. The reason behind this is the depth of European values. Japan is rich and has a strong economy, so they are worthy of respect.

In other words, Turkey’s job is not that difficult, it only needs to become more affluent. If it does that, Turkey’s EU process will be much easier than anyone currently imagines.