Can EU refuse Turkey?

In addition, the Greek Cypriot foreign minister recently said that Turkey should recognize the Greek Cypriot administration as the ‘Cyprus Republic’ before it gets a date for membership talks. The recent European Parliament report said something similar. In addition, withdrawing Turkish soldiers from Cyprus is another condition. It’s not clear if the Greek Cypriot administration and Athens will hang a veto threat over giving Turkey a date. Even if they don’t, it’s uncertain how they will treat the conditions discussed during the negotiations. The EU didn’t keep its promises to the Turkish Cypriots and Ankara, and now it’s snuggling up to the Greek Cypriot administration. At the moment, harmony between Ankara and the TRNC is very important.”

In his address yesterday to a conference at the Turkish American Association entitled ‘High Hopes: An Overview of Turkey’s Accession to the EU,’ US Ambassador to Ankara Eric Edelman spoke along the same lines, stressing the recent change in European leaders’ stand on Turkey. It’s really striking that even Germany’s Greens Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who was a student leader in 1968, has changed his mind on our entry.

But what about France? Do the French leaders really want to close their doors on Turkey? And the German right, the Christian Democrats? If they really could do so, what’s stopping them? Why don’t they just say ‘no’ to Ankara instead of making proposals out of left field like ‘privileged partnership’ that they know we’ll never accept?

All these questions can be answered as follows: because they all know that Turkey’s full membership will ultimately benefit Europe. They are all aware that democracy is a regime of tolerance and compromise, and they will have to show tolerance for and compromise with Turkey in order to strengthen their democracy. In line with the principle of multiculturalism embraced by most European democratic circles, the old continent knows that it will have to coexist with Turkey in the future. The question is whether over the course of time this can become a voluntary coexistence.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is today set to report back to the National Security Council (NSC) chaired by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on yesterday’s tripartite summit with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The leaders of France and Germany said that they expected December’s EU summit to approve starting entry talks next year for Turkey’s bid to join the Union.

Everything can change in the negotiations. But what is more important for Turkey, starting its membership talks or starting them as soon as possible? Would it be worth it to make certain concessions to start our membership negotiations next May rather than November? If our government strives to persuade EU decision-makers to set the earliest date possible, is the price too high? If there is a clear advantage in starting membership talks as soon as possible, this really should be shared with the public.”